Nero stared over at Hikari from behind the shades he was wearing and then shook his head lightly when she asked about the name 'Shadow'. He couldn't believe that she was actually trying to come up with another name for him. Despite everything the name 'Shadow' wasn't that bad especially given his particular clan. He sighed quietly and didn't comment. There was no need to, at least not right now. He quirked a brow very slightly and cast his glance over to Kanone briefly when he started laughing and said that the two of them, he and Hikari, were just like little kids. He just shook his head again, especially after Hikari wound up laughing as well. At least someone found humor in all of this. He stared over at Hikari when she said for him not to push and she wouldn't shove. "Whatever you say Princess." He responded. He stood there quietly and glanced over at Reyes once Hikari had gotten around to telling him who the other two were. He had already been silent though he did try to quiet himself even more, if that was possible, once Celestine had shushed everyone. He was of course curious to know what was going on but he wouldn't be able to hear anything no matter how hard he tried. His hearing just wasn't as good as Celestine's. Though the idea of something having snuck up on them irked him very slightly. He was usually really good about keeping an eye on the group and noticing when something or someone was following them. Sadly since they entered Glenys his ability to keep an eye out on these types of things had suffered. He just wasn't doing as good a job as he could have been doing.

Reyes couldn't help but chuckle lightly at Hikari and Nero, especially after Kanone had started laughing and said that they were just like little kids. He had to agree and this was all rather humorous to him. He quieted himself rather easily by the time Hikari had started talking again and then looked over at the other two dragons when she started to say what their names were. He turned his attention back to Hikari when she was cut off mid name on the other dragon and then turned his attention towards Celestine, which had been the source of the shushing. He wasn't quite grasping what was going on and just looked a little dumbfounded as he glanced around between everyone. He didn't budge or even speak a word until he caught sight of Celestine, apparently pulling a dart from his neck. He was a bit shocked and wasn't really paying attention to a whole lot. He just couldn't believe that something was happening to this group already and it started with a dart. He wanted to go over to Celestine as soon as he wound up on the ground but he found he couldn't move because Nero had reached out and grabbed hold of his arm. He should have known that the first sign of danger Nero was going to be watching him more closely but he still wanted to go see if Celestine was alright, regardless.

Nobu had been pretty relaxed just sitting there with Celestine but of course he lifted his head a bit and his ears perked up slightly when he heard Celestine shush everyone and start listening for something. His hearing was good, maybe not quite as good as Celestine's but it was still pretty good. He tried to hear what Celestine was hearing of course but wasn't catching it like he was. He turned his nose up and tried to smell for something. If Celestine was hearing something than he and Esen should be able to smell it once it caught the air just the right way. He didn't bother standing when Celestine started to reach for his blade. He just kept a close eye on him and looked around as best as he could to try and catch whatever it was that Celestine had caught onto. He wound up on his feet in no time at all when the dart struck Celestine and of course he was worried. He wasn't entirely sure what they were going to be up against so he didn't bother moving any further than getting to his feet. Once Celestine wound up on the ground he did shift enough to practically stand over him with a protective stance. He cast a glance down to Celestine only briefly before he lifted his head to look at the direction the dart had come from. '...Celestine.... you alright...?' He asked, quite honestly hoping to get a response out of him though he wasn't holding his breathe.

Kyran startled very slightly at Celestine winding up on the ground after the dart to his neck. He wasn't sure entirely what to say to that but he was at least thankful that he had the forethought to gather his blades earlier when he got to his feet. He lowered his hands down to his holster and wrapped his hands around the hilt of his blades before glancing to Hikari breifly from the corner of his eye. "...You're people wouldn't do something like that would they?" He asked as quietly as he could while still allowing her to be able to hear him.

Esen's ears perked up when Celestine shushed everyone and she looked at Nobu as she raised up her head, sniffing the air similarly to the way that Celestine had. Her hearing was good as well, but she wasn't quite sure she heard anything that Celestine heard. her head jerked skyward when she heard the eagle's warning cry and saw Celestine's reaction to it. She stood up as he did when he started to speak and let out a startled squeaking bark when he was hit with the dart. She watched as he pulled it from his neck and then moved to his other side quickly, eying the edge of the forest where the dart had come from as well, a low growl rising unconsciously in her throat. She looked over to Nobu and Celestine briefly and then turned her eyes back to the forest again. It wasn't long before a scent did reach her, though she only barely recognized it, she did know what it was. "Humans..." she growled softly to Nobu.

Kanone was trying this best to listen hard to whatever it was that Celestine was hearing, but he couldn't hear quite as well as Celestine. He had a feeling Celestine could still hear a pin drop across the room even if it was full of people talking at times. He couldn't figure out what was so interesting, though his ears twitched when he heard the sharp sound of the rock and he looked in the same direction that Celestine had at the sound. His attention was snagged again when the eagle started screaming out a very familiar warning, one that made his stomach drop. That bird had been flying toward them in Caledonia making that same sound and Celestine had reacted almost the same way just before Marius ran out of the house warning them about hunters. He was just about to grab up Celestine's swallow when he heard Celestine's choked off word and saw him stumble with the dart in his neck. His eyes widened and he darted forward without thinking, skidding to a stop just above Celestine's head and of Nobu and Esen's way. He reached down to the kid's head and pushed his hair out of his face, staring at him. "Cel!?" He turned his head a little and pried open his eye a little more, noticing that his pupils were dilated to the point that his eyes were almost more gold than emerald. As soon as he let go of Celestine's eyelid it fell closed. He growled softly, well aware that Celestine had been drugged. He glanced at the dart and then ahead at the trees where Esen was growling. He, for once, had absolutely no trace of humor on his face; he was ready to kill something if he had to. "...Hunters..." he muttered quietly, though probably just loud enough to be heard be others.

Celestine's couldn't really concentrate on anything, he just felt himself sinking into blackness, though he did hear Nobu's question. He tried to move, but his movements were sluggish and his mouth barely moved as he groaned quietly. "...No...bu......tired...." His thoughts were just as sluggish as everything else, and so muddled they were probably a little hard to comprehend. He could barely make sense of them himself. Be heard Kanone as well, though he sounded miles away from him. Within seconds after he heard his little nickname, he was in an unnaturally deep sleep.

Hikari was silent as she watched Celestine, though she let out an audible gasp when he stood up only to be hit by the dart. She blinked as Kanone darted forward and then looked at the forest, already grabbing behind her into her new little holster above her bag as she unlatched the little snap and slipped her new bow out of it's holster. As she brought it around to the front she pressed the button with her thumb that caused the silvery, mechanical bow to unfold. She shook her head sharply after Kanone asked if her people would do that. "No," she responded quickly. It was only a moment later when she heard Kanone say the word 'hunters'. Her ears perked up and she bit her lower lip before she narrowed her eyes a little and moved forward, a little, pointedly putting herself between the forest and Reyes. After all, she had promised Nero she'd do everything she could to make sure nothing happened to the girl, and she meant it in more ways than protecting her form the dungeon. She heard a whistling noise from the wind just before she noticed the little red object flying in her direction. She swung her bow quickly, knocking the dart out of the air with the edge of it. Of course now they would aim for her...she posed the most threat to them with a long range weapon.

Nanashi's was already being quiet, but he almost tried not to even breathe when Celestine shushed everyone. His eyes widened when Celestine staggered and fell over, and he rather quickly was up from his relaxed position and crouching on the ground, just in front of LaRae, almost protectively. He couldn't fight, he knew that, but he could block and make a halfway decent shield. He didn't know how well LaRae could manage with her wrists and ankles the way they were. He eyed Celestine and Kanone for a moment and then swallowed hard when he heard Kanone say the word 'hunters'. He had never really encountered them before, though he had come into contact with humans, and honestly, they scared him almost as badly as dragons did. They were much quicker to resort to violence and they attacked like wolves more than anything...once one jumped, several others joined in or circled around to watch. He edged himself a little further in front of LaRae as he stared out into the trees.

Aamori hadn't moved much from where she was sitting though there had been an extremely strong urge to get up and rush over to Celestine as soon as he had gone down. She hadn't mostly because it was dangerous to get close to him when he was taken down that easily by one dart. She wasn't the best fighter and surely it wouldn't have taken a whole lot for another dart to come sailing at her if she had tried to go to him. She was at least thankful that Kanone had gone to him and that Esen and Nobu were right there. She felt terrible about not going over to him but the idea of being smart and not getting herself hurt kind of flashed in her mind before she could even move. She stared over at Kanone while he was checking on Celestine and absently lifted her hand to rest on Zale who had already stood up and took a rather protective stance in front of her. She listened quietly and waited for some response from Kanone though she certainly didn't get the one she wanted. The word 'hunters' made a shiver trail down her spine and brought back some awful memories really fast. She wished there had been fur on Zale to clench because she felt the need to do something with her hands. She cracked slightly and started to curl in on herself while somewhat hidden behind Zale. The idea of hunters really had put her in a bad place. She accidentally killed one previously that no one but her, Celestine and Kanone knew about. She hated the idea of having to do that again.

Nobu stayed where he was even once Kanone had come over to check on Celestine. Only after both Esen and Kanone had verified human hunters did he inch very slightly away from Celestine so that he wasn't quite so in the way. He managed to catch Celestine's weak attempt at a response and it honestly only ticked him off a little more. He hated the idea that some stupid hunter had managed to get Celestine with a drugged dart. He hadn't had to deal with very many humans, let alone hunters but even so he had a massive distaste for them. Besides their main target usually being dragons most hunters loved a rare find and there just so happened to be three very visible rare finds in this bunch. He'd probably wager to say that any one of the hunters would likely be thinking 'jackpot' at the sight of eight dragons, one half breed and three rare canines. It didn't take too long for his anger to win out over his level head and within seconds he had revealed his fangs along with a rather angry sounding growl. In the case of human hunters it probably wasn't the wisest thing to piss off the fastest canine in the bunch.

Nero kept a firm hold on Reyes' arm to make sure he didn't go anywhere. Not to mention keeping the boy close meant it was easier to protect him. He was only a little surprised to see Hikari position herself ahead of Reyes once she had readied her bow. He would have gotten his own weapons out already had he not needed to keep a close eye on his cousin. Then again, one of the brass knuckles was broken so his weapons weren't quite in the best shape nor was a close hand to hand fight the type you wanted when you had no real clue where your enemy was, how many there were and clearly had long distance weapons. He caught wind of the noise from the dart just before Hikari had knocked it out of the air before it could hit her and then he pulled on Reyes' arm a little to pull the boy out from in front of him and push him behind him. "Don't worry about Reyes. I can handle it." He muttered quietly. He of course had gathered that she would be a target now that she had reveled she was a long range fighter. She didn't need to be worrying about protecting Reyes at the moment, especially when he was fully capable of doing that.

Reyes startled slightly when Hikari had knocked something from the air. His eyes followed it and he eyed the dart before pointing to it momentarily to which his shadow responded by moving to where the dart had landed and sucking it into itself just before moving back into place. Shen at least understood orders fairly well and one less dart laying around was one less weapon to be used against them. He startled again slightly when he felt Nero jerk him back and move him behind him. The action wasn't surprising in the least it was just so sudden. He really wasn't accustomed to fighting, not even to this degree and with hunters so he was at a loss as to what to do and what to expect. Thankfully he was at least smart enough to know to stay out the way and hide when need be.

Kyran nodded slightly to Hikari's answer though hearing Kanone say hunters was more than enough to answer his questions. They hadn't run into hunters too much, if at all really while they've been on this journey so he was kind of surprised to be having issues with them now, then again, maybe he wasn't. The thought barely crossed his mind that any of this would bring bad memories to anyone. He may have been there when Kanone and Celestine found Sonia but he had no real emotional ties to the incident so it didn't even really strike him. He had slowly worked his blades from the holster and gripped them tightly the proper way. He just barely caught sight of the dart as it was headed for Hikari and was thankful that she had managed to knock it away before it hit her. He could have most likely easily helped with that dart but she had managed just fine on her own. He kept a decent eye on the surroundings, at least until he took a moment to eye Nobu. He wasn't that surprised to see him upset though the idea of Nobu being that upset was a little unsettling because he knew how fast Nobu was and the canine could be down right lethal if he really wanted to be.

LaRae had kept deathly silent when Celestine had hushed everyone and for the most part had kept her eyes glued to Celestine since he was the only one who obviously had heard something. She was easily startled when Celestine went down by way of blow dart. If that had managed to take him down that easily than it could most likely take any number of them down. She didn't waste a whole lot of time at that point in shifting from her seated position onto her knees. At least that way she had an easier time of getting mobile. Her boots were still off but thankfully she didn't need those to move on terrain like this. Her ankles were still sore as were her wrists but in a situation like this she certainly wasn't going to let that keep her from doing whatever she could. She was a little surprised by Nanashi moving in front of her like he did. He wasn't much of a fighter himself really so she was almost pleasantly surprised at his motion to be in front of her. She didn't focus on that for too long before she had taken a chance to look around at everyone else. Hikari, Kyran, Nero and Reyes were pretty much clustered together and then Kanone was with Celestine, Nobu and Esen which left her and Nanashi to a small grouping and then Aamori and Zale. Unfortunately it looked that Aamori and Zale were furthest from the larger clusters and the least defended. She wasn't quite sure why the two of them were further away but that didn't matter at the moment, what mattered was the fact that Aamori looked rather helpless curled in on herself and Zale wasn't much protection and he really wasn't very bulky so there was nothing for Aamori to hide behind. She wanted to go help keep an eye on her but it would be way noticeable for her to get up and rush over there not to mention it would draw attention to a weak link. She only debated on a course of action for a moment or two before she slipped her fingers to the ground and carefully started to push into the dirt a little before emitting a little glow of energy. She didn't think her actions would be too noticeable since she figured most hunters might be more concerned with the larger clusters of dragons along with the stronger more dangerous ones. After a brief couple moments a couple of roots started to work their way from the nearest tree across the ground, just below the surface and towards Aamori. Aside from the occasional section of root popping up from the ground the trail seemed almost unnoticeable. As soon as the roots reached across the ground to Aamori she let out a larger quick burst of energy which forced the roots to shoot up out of the ground in a multitude of pointy ends which interlaced one another in a dome around Aamori with only an opening large enough for Zale to stand in front of. Unfortunately anyone who had seen her previous work would probably notice that the protective shield wasn't like her better work. Instead of it being solid wood without any openings it was roots intertwined and the roots weren't as thick as they could be. It certainly wasn't as strong as she would like but it should keep blow darts out. She just didn't have the energy in her to produce her older work thanks to the seal on her back. Even so, at least Aamori had a bit more protection this way. If she had the energy in her to do so she would happily of done more shields for some cover but considering they could probably be hacked through with some ease she saw little point to making more, not to mention she had no real idea how much energy she actually had in her any more since the mark on her back had grown.

Kanone glanced briefly to Nobu when he started growling and then turned his attention back to the woods. He had, unfortunately left the swallow leaning against the tree near where he'd been sleeping and was thus completely unarmed. he hadn't thought about it when he ran over to Celestine, but now he was mentally beating himself int he head. This was perfect, it wasn't like he could just casually walk back and get it. He did tend to lose his head a little when it came to something hurting his cousin. Of course he was also hardly thinking quite straight. It hadn't been all that long since hunters had stolen his mother form him and left her body mutilated in the woods for the animals to feast on had he not found her in time to prevent that much. Anger trailed through him and it burned almost like fire as he glowered into the woods. He wasn't about to let them take his little cousin from him, too. Even if these weren't the same ones, he didn't care. They had killed someone's mother or father or sister or brother or child or cousin or friend... Any dragon they killed was one of those if not more. He really could say that he hated hunters, not humans in general, but the ones who would kill for pleasure and profit. They gave no thought to anything but themselves and had no respect for what they killed, which was the very opposite of the way he and Celestine functioned. It really pissed him off, and the anger probably could be felt by nearly anyone around the area. The wind wasn't quite as calm as it bad been before their arrival, and it seemed to pick up a little more the more the longer that he say there thinking about it and watching for them, that almost murderous look on his face. He gritted his teeth and stared into the trees, at least until the roots shot up around Aamori. He startled at that and the wind died down a little as he watched, wide eyed. That small distraction was enough to cause him to be caught off guard. He heard the whistling sound just a second too late to do anything about it and he let out a tiny yelp as the dart sank into his arm, though it hadn't come from the same direction as the ones that had gone at Celestine and Hikari, this one came from ahead at where the louder noise had come from, and he hadn't even been facing that direction. Apparently that brief show of distraction was all whoever was hiding int hat direction needed. As many as they could get down was as many as they could easily kill, even if he was unarmed, he knew that as he jerked the dart from his arm and glowered back in the direction that it had come from. He could have kicked himself for being hit with the damn thing, and being over here unarmed in the first place. He growled audibly, honestly wishing he had something he could use to fight. He wasn't about to be taken down by a dart if he could help it, though already he could feel the effects creeping in on him. His head was starting to feel a little floaty, and within seconds he seemed to have relaxed enough that he was no longer growling and didn't look half as ready to dive up and rip out anythings throat with his bare claws, but he wasn't going down nearly as fast as his tiny cousin.

Esen continued to growl softly, even after Nobu had bared his teeth at the trees. Her ears perked for a brief moment when she heard Kanone's yelp and she looked back to him briefly before she shifted positions quickly so that she was standing over Celestine and in front of Kanone, staring in the direction that the dart that hit him had come from. She hunkered down a little, her fur bristling making her appear almost as large as Nobu as she pinned her ears back and snarled menacingly, almost like a mother over her young. She was a very gentle canine, probably the most gentle of the four of them, but she could be ferocious when she had a mind to be, and protecting Celestine and Kanone could certainly give her the mind to attack anything that got too close...well anything that wasn't one of the other group members.

Hikari didn't turn her head back to Nobu, but she nodded once while keeping her eyes peeled for more of those darts. "Right," she responded quietly. She was a little startled when the roots burst from the ground around Aamori, but she still managed to keep her gaze steady, and she noticed the next dart flying at here mere seconds after the roots had come from the ground. Again, she swatted it away from her with the bow, making a light clink, though there was another one very close behind it that she only narrowly managed to swat down with the hard scales of her tail as she danced away from him, only bothering to hit it so that it wouldn't fly past her and hit Nero. She'd heard Kanone's yelp as she was moving and assumed there must have been another one shooting darts. She had an idea that would likely throw the hunters off since they were obviously in position to see her. She reached over her shoulder, behind her back, as if reaching for an arrow, and then put on an 'oh crap' expression when she for obvious reasons, didn't find one. She pulled her arm back quickly and gripped her bow more like a weapon she could swing than something she could shoot with. If she could get them to move where she could see them, then she could get them. If they thought that she was harmless with her bow, that would be a plus for her.

Nanashi stayed stone still as he waited for something to erupt from the bushes, though he didn't move since it was only darts flying out at the others. He wished eh could do something to help, but he didn't know what. He blinked when he noticed the cage come up around Aamori and then glanced back to LaRae quickly, noticing both that the dome was nowhere what it had been when it had been over her, and that she had her fingers dug into the ground. He looked back quickly then he heard Kanone gasp in pain and watched him pull the dart from his arm, cringing. Finally he reached over his back, grabbing onto his spetum and pulling both ends from his holster and twisted them together without even looking as he held it in front of him and stood up. earth dragons were formidable, he was sure nearly and hunter should know that, he was pretty sure LaRae was going to be targeted soon enough, so he tried to position himself a little more in front of her. At least if he was hit they wouldn't be missing out on anyone helpful from the fight.

It was only a few moments later when someone started out of the trees, though this person came from the direction of the one dart that had hit Kanone. She didn't bother to hide herself any longer, it seemed to her safe enough to venture into sight. After all, the light dragon couldn't very well shoot her. Shortly after her dart had connected with the other wind dragon, the one that seemed to be stirring up the wind, she started moving forward. He wasn't too big, it should knock him out in a few minutes anyway, and he was unarmed, so she didn't see much hard there. The earth dragon had conversantly caged in the water dragon, and she was pretty sure she could take on the others. The little one looked harmless, the light dragon's weapon was virtually useless, and the other two...well, she knew how to fight and the one seemed to be unarmed. The biggest threat that she saw was the thunder dragon, she almost entirely ignored the canines. She didn't care about those, she just needed to kill off the larger dragons and make sure the younger ones were sedated since she was some someone was probably going to want to try to 'tame' them and sell them or something, though she didn't know if these were quite young enough to be tamed. Once she stepped out of the shadows of the trees, it was rather easy to see her for what she was. She wore tight dark brown pants that opened into rounded off rectangles all along the outer sides from top to bottom. Above it she wore a complementing black corset with brown laces, and just above it a purple top showed, covering her breasts with off-white ruffles just around the top and over the straps that held it up. She wore lighter brown knee-high boots over her pants that laced up the front with black laces, and on each arm had a flowing off-white sleeve-gloves that matched the ruffles on her shirt, and had the same ruffles along the top and split to just below her elbow on the inner side. A light brown leather belt attached around her waist with a pack on the side and two sheathed blade handles visible from the back, apparently crossing over just above her tail. This one, at the very least, was not your typical slayer. Along her exposed shoulders were hard amethyst scales that seemed to start at her shoulders and travel along her back, leaving her with soft olive toned skin all along the front of her chest and down her slightly muscular arms. Another small patch of scales sat just around her cleavage, and a few individual scales appeared here and there on her upper body. The scales also framed her face around her hair like and along part of her cheeks, away from her pointed ears, though her long pale hair covered half of her face. Her hair was cut straight across at her lower-mid back and hung half in her face in an arrow straight line. It was almost white in color, but had a faint purple sheen to it, making her sharp amethyst eyes stand out in her face. She wore a small dragon fang from one ear as an earring, and a larger one around her neck as a necklace, almost identical to Nanashi's, though the tooth was a bit longer and sharper, not a baby tooth, that was in her ear. Her other ear was pierced with three black studs, connected together by a black chain that hung in small arches between the studs. Her tail, much like Kyran,s' was long and deep purple, but more slender and had a trail of thin white-purple hair that trailed down the center and fanned out at the base in tufts that almost looked like feathers. Her lips were dark pink, and she was fairly pretty in spite of the scales except for her left arm. Where the right held the appearance of a normal human hand with long, unnaturally hard black fingernails, her left was covered in the hard red scales from the elbow down, the fingers longer and clawed with almost talon-like nails, much the way that Nanashi's had been when he had gone into that hideous half-dragon form. The sleeve covered a good bit on her hand, but it was still very noticeable that her other hand did not look entirely human. She looked around quickly, her cold eyes looking sharp at the group, though they caught for a moment on the other halfbreed. She blinked and then narrowed her eyes at him and glanced past him at the earth dragon behind him. She knew that the girl was a full dragon in spite of her lack of horns, the dome around the water dragon was proof enough of that. With blinding speed she moved her hand again and threw another of the red darts directly at the earth dragon he was protecting. She didn't need her tying her down with her pathetic looking roots. She moved with speed so fast that she could easily match Kyran in quick movements and the dart was out of her hand and whistling at her almost like a bullet, the aim just narrowly past the halfbreed, intent on hitting the dragon in the neck as she had the smaller wind dragon.

Aamori startled quite a bit at the sudden eruption of roots around her that quickly encased her. She relaxed considerably when she focused on the fact that they were roots and they were protecting her. Of course she eventually came to the conclusion that LaRae was behind this and she was rather thankful for that. Although as much as she liked having the protection she also had no where to go if Zale wound up taken down. She didn't quite want to worry about that right now. All she was really worried about was the fact that the only exit was guarded by Zale and she couldn't quite see through him to be able to see what else was going on in the area.

Nobu grew considerably more uncomfortable with the whole situation when Kanone wound up getting hit with a dart as well. He was at the very least glad to see that it wasn't taking Kanone down as fast as it had Celestine though it would eventually take him down if it was really that strong. He was a little alarmed that the dart had come from a different direction as the ones going at Hikari. That meant that more than one person had blow darts and that made him uncomfortable. He wanted to head into the trees himself to hunt down a human or two, just to try and stop some of the darts but he didn't particularly want to leave Esen to guard both Celestine and Kanone. He didn't doubt the fact that she could do it but it would just be a lot easier with the both of them there.

Reyes peered out from behind Nero both when he heard Kanone yelp and again the times that Hikari knocked the darts from the air. Just like before he directed Shen to snag the darts while hoping it wasn't too noticeable. Nero hadn't budged from in front of him and he didn't bother to move away. He was just fine having Nero guarding him and he felt safe to some extent since he knew what his cousin was capable of. Unfortunately Nero was a little bit unarmed at the moment but Nero didn't have to have a weapon to fight and worse case scenario, Shen would pick up wherever Nero left off in the protection department. He very lightly wrapped his hand around the fabric of Nero's shirt right at the small of his back and continued to peek out slightly from behind him. He was a little surprised when someone did finally slip out from the trees. The part that surprised him the most was the fact that the girl wasn't just a normal human like he would have expected. She was noticeably a halfbreed and that was just really strange to him. He hadn't ever seen many halfbreed's and here there was one on the side of hunters. His hand absently tightened a bit on Nero's shirt. He wasn't quite sure what to feel at the moment since he hadn't ever really been in this position.

LaRae hadn't really even thought about what she was doing when she went to shield Aamori. Had she been thinking before hand she would have weighed the two sides of doing what she had. Sure it helped protect her friend but at the cost of giving herself away and drawing attention to herself along with causing Kanone to get distracted. Unfortunately that little distraction had caused him to get stuck with a dart just as Celestine had. That really wasn't good. She would so be beating herself up later over that if the group lived long enough for that to happen. She shifted her attention to Nanashi slightly when she noticed him reaching for his weapon and getting to his feet. She hadn't thought much about her being an immediate target so her guard suffered a little. She was actually quite touched however that Nanashi was prepared to protect her. Her eyes were pretty easily drawn towards the halfbreed once she had come out into the open. She was surprised to see a halfbreed of all things among the hunters. Then again she guessed the only thing more surprising then that would be to see an actual dragon among hunters. She just kind of stared at the girl from behind Nanashi. She was having a hard time believing her eyes. Because of where her focus was she really hadn't seen what the girl had thrown or that she had even thrown anything for that matter. She had rather swift movements for a halfbreed and she didn't even register what it was until it was too late to successfully move clear of what she suspected was most likely a dart. It sank into her neck earning a startled yelp in return. She threw up her arm and pulled the dart from her neck, trying not to just yank it out and then tossed it to the ground. It didn't take very long at all for her to start feeling the effects of the sedative and it felt as if it was spreading like wild fire. She wasn't as small as Celestine so she didn't think she would be out quite as fast as him but it would most likely overcome her quickly enough. She sank forward slightly and tried to hold herself up with her hands and meant to say something to Nanashi but she found it extremely difficult to get the muscles to move required for that motion and wound up with her arms giving out from under her with her face finding it's way to the ground. She was just vaguely aware of her surroundings but in no way able to respond at the moment.

Kyran didn't get distracted by LaRae's actions though he did momentarily glance in Aamori's direction when the roots shot up. He knew better than to get caught up in that with someone shooting at Hikari with darts. He did focus a bit more on Kanone though when he wound up getting hit with a dart. He couldn't believe how easy they were getting pegged with these things. Both Celestine and Kanone would have been at an advantage in this situation since they had better hearing than anyone else in the group and now, even though Kanone wasn't quite down and out, they both would be soon. His attention shifted again when the darts started at Hikari once again. He was glad that they weren't managing to get her and the fact that she had a long ranged weapon was better for them. He stared over at her only briefly when she started to reach for an arrow and then caught on to what she was doing. That was clever. He went back to watching where the darts had been coming from though his attention shifted yet again when someone did finally emerge from the trees. He practically gawked at the girl who had stepped out from the trees. Not because of her looks but because of the fact that she was a halfbreed and from his own clan no less. He hadn't seen a thunder clan halfbreed in years, if at all. He wasn't sure he remembered any since they were usually done away with rather than allowed to live. His attention really shifted all together as it went off on a tangent about having to report this. There was a thunder halfbreed working as a hunter among humans and the clan more than likely didn't know of her existence. He tried very hard to pry himself away from that train of thought when he noticed her throw a dart at LaRae and manage to hit her. He was able to keep up with the girls speedy movements so of course he didn't miss that though he was alarmed that she was one of the ones with darts. He wanted to warn Hikari to be extra careful but he didn't want to draw any more attention towards either of them than there already was not to mention he was fairly certain that she would get the drift that she needed to be more careful with that girl. He wasn't sure that he was going to be able to keep still for too much longer now that the girl had made herself known. She certainly needed to be taken care of before any more of their group was taken down.

Kanone blinked when he noticed the figure moving toward them. He tried his best to focus on her, and it didn't take him long to realize that she was a half breed...more dragon-like than Nanashi. He was already surprised to see a halfbreed with the darts, but he didn't have too much time to focus on her. He tried to move down a little, getting slightly behind Esen and closer to Celestine's side. He saw the halfbreed move and throw something at LaRae and by then he was actually swaying where he sat, looking almost sick. He did feel nauseous on top of the overpoweringly floaty feeling. His head throbbed and he tried to move closer to Celestine, placing his one arm over him sluggishly. He couldn't really do too much, all he could do was make sure that anyone would have to go through him to get to Celestine. He felt the effects taking over and he finally just toppled over sideways, though he just barely had the presence of mind left to curl up a little, forcing one arm under Celestine's neck as he pulled him closer, keeping one hand where it mostly covered the boy's neck and the other arm around his back as tightly as he could manage, puling him close to him. Celestine's head was buried in the crook of Kanone's neck, his horn poking out just over his shoulder as Kanone rested his chin on top of Celestine's head, trying his best to cover up as much of the boy as he could for all the good it would do either of them. He was at least adamant on one thing...if they were dying right now, they were definitely going to have to kill him first. Unfortunately, that last attempt was the only one he was going to have any time to make. No sooner had he gotten positioned than he started losing the battle for consciousness and just felt everything fading as his breathing slowed dramatically. The last thing he was really aware of was the feeling of tears sliding down his face as he face the thought that this was the second time that he'd been unable to protect his family from slayers. He was just going to have to hope that the others were able to manage fighting them off, otherwise they were out of luck and Marius wasn't going to have anyone coming home to him.

Esen continued to stand in front of Celestine and Kanone, though she inched forward a little when the halfbreed came into view, and gave Kanone a little room to move wherever he was trying to go. She was focused more on the dragon half than what Kanone was doing. She continued to growl savagely at the girl as she came out closer to them. The girl appeared to be roughly Nanashi's age, maybe a little older, and much like Kyran she was tall and thin, maybe about Hikari's height or a little more, making her easily taller than both Aamori and LaRae. She didn't move any closer, but she did make it closer that if the girl got any closer to them at all that she would attack.

Nanashi looked up when he saw the figure moving closer to them, though when it hit him what he was seeing he froze, staring completely dumbstruck at the girl...a dragon half...like him. He had never in his entire life seen someone like him ever before. Well..she wasn't entirely like him as he noticed after a few moments. Her arm sent a shiver down his spine as he remembered how it felt when he had transformed into something more grotesquely half dragon. Did she look like that all for the time or was she going through that same unbearable change? She didn't look to be in pain...he assumed that she must have just been born like that...maybe. But then why didn't he have scales all over his neck and back? For a moment, it didn't even strike him that she was with the hunters, he almost warned her to run until he noticed her move, though he couldn't tell what she had done. The dart was moving so fast he hardly had time to see it, let alone block it, and he only really noticed it after he felt the wind by his side. He gasped when he realized that LaRae had just been hit as well. He looked back to her quickly when he saw her pull the dart from her neck he looked back to the other dragon half again, looking both confused and disbelieving before he looked back to LaRae again. What was the dragon half doing!? He quickly moved back when he realized LaRae had collapsed by his feet. "LaRae!?" he gasped as he placed his hand on the side of her face lightly and then looked back up to the other halfbreed, staring at her in wide-eyed disbelief, his mouth hanging half open. He wanted to go up and shake her, honestly, and demand to know what in the hell she was doing trying to kill these dragons who'd he was sure had never done her any harm. He really didn't understand why she was doing this, though for some reason...he wasn't afraid of her. He just looked like he was in shock at the mere sight of her. He had forgot that he was even holding his spetum, it was laying on the ground beside him, though he still had his hand wrapped around the handle tightly.

Hikari was that that her ploy seemed to have at least worked halfway decently. No more darts came flying at her at the moment, though her attention was rather quickly snagged when someone else walked into their little clearing near Celestine and Kanone. She gripped her bow a little more tightly as she stared at the dragon half and then briefly glanced to Kyran before looking back to her again, just in time to see her throw a dart at LaRae. She only barely noticed Nanashi's expression, though she was rather worried about the two of them being so close to her, especially since Nanashi couldn't fight that well and LaRae had just been drugged. She didn't know what in the world the dragon half was doing here in her territory working with the hunters, but that hardly mattered. She was just worried for Nanahsi's safety at the moment. Slowly, she started to raised her bow and pointed it at the girl, though she really didn't want to kill her. She was trying to think where to shoot that wouldn't kill her but would make her useless in battle when she was caught a little off guard by another dart from the woods. She had thought that the girl may be alone considering her obvious speed it wouldn't be hard for her to run around the clearing and confuse them by throwing darts from different areas, but then again, it would be rather stupid of her to show herself now had that been the case, S he caught the dart just as it was getting close to her and had to dive forward to avoid it, though that still sent it sailing right past her and put her out ahead of Kyran a bit.

The halfbreed took little more notice of the fire halfbreed and rather quickly turned her attention to the light dragon with her bow when she started to raise it. She knew she had no arrows, but apparently she had something else up her sleeve. Of course she did, why carry a bow when you didn't even have a quiver? She was thankful for the brief distraction of the dart sent at the light dragon that made her jump out of the way. Within a blink she was dashing forward at speeds that made her little more than a purple blur in the aid and she completely jumped over the two canines and the two fallen wind dragons and landed well on the other side of them, drawling her blades in midair and holding them out to her sides momentarily. They were machetes, two very beaten and stained machinates that clearly saw a good bit of use. She dashed forward with speeds that could only easily be matched by Kyran, though she knew light dragons weren't too far behind a thunder dragon in their agility, and she was probably only a fraction of a second slower than a full dragon, but it was still always enough to catch them off guard. She was in front of the light dragon in just a second and a half, her blades already slashing down at her in diagonal motions with enough force to slice right through her collar bones if she managed to hit her with the things. Her hair was flying almost straight bean behind her and she only slowed enough in her forward motion to be visibly glowering at the dragon she was aiming to kill with nothing but loathing.

Hiakri's eyes widened slightly when the dragon half was suddenly across the clearing and right in front of her. She was very lucky that she had a good reaction time or she would have likely been dead on the spot. She only barely had time to drop her bow and before it had even hit the ground she threw up her hands and grabbed the girls' wrists, though the force of her attack was enough to force her down to one knee. She gritted her teeth and squeezed the girl's wrists as she forced herself back up , trying to make her drop her blades, though it wasn't working.

The girl narrowed her eyes again when her attack was blocked and growled when she felt her wrists being squeezed. It was uncomfortable, but not unbearable, and she couldn't even tell on her left arm at all. After a moment she dropped her machete and wretched her left arm out of the light dragon's grasp and swung her sharp talon-like claws at her face, making three deep gashes all along her cheek. To her surprise, the girl didn't let go of her, but she still managed to duck down enough to grab her other machete, but she was stopped before she had time to do anything with it. As she knew, light dragons were fast, and this one she had underestimated apparently. She assumed since she had a bow that she would be useless at close range combat...boy was she learning.

Hikari let out a shrill yelp as the claws slashed through her face and grated against the bone. Already she could feel blood pouring in hot streams down her face and neck, but she managed to keep her grip on the girl, though her face was searing she managed to throw herself against the girl as she grabbed her machete and then forced her arm out to her side before slamming her knee up into the girl's abdomen with enough force to double her over before her shoved her hand against throat and threw her backwards.

Nobu found it a little difficult to keep his gaze from wandering over to the new arrival, the halfbreed from the thunder clan. That unsettled him a little, seeing the purple scales and dragon appendages. If he was uncomfortable with any type of halfbreed it was the type he would know the most about. He hadn't ever really laid eyes on a thunder clan halfbreed before but he knew plenty of thunder dragons and could only imagine how much of a pain this girl was going to be. He kept his attention in her direction at least until another dart went sailing towards Hikari. He was fairly certain he could tell exactly where those were coming from and judging by Kyran he clearly had an idea of where they were coming from as well. If that were the case then he wouldn't have to worry about the person with the darts, Kyran could handle that one but if his nose was picking up on the scents properly, there was a few out there in the trees. His attention shifted again when the halfbreed girl finally started to move and wound up jumping over the little group he and Esen had been watching. He didn't have too much trouble following the halfbreed's movements but she was still quite fast. Once she went after Hikari he saw that as a bit of an opening, especially since Hikari was able to fight back. The other hunters would likely be drawn into that scrimmage, at least enough that they wouldn't quite be paying complete attention to the lesser threats. Or at least he assumed that he, Esen and Zale had been considered lesser threats since no one had even attempted attacking them. That was quite the insult in his opinion but oh well, it worked in their favor at least.

Reyes continued to stick behind Nero like he was supposed to though he did notice that Nero got a little tense once the halfbreed got close enough to get physical with Hikari. He could tell that Nero didn't care too much for standing guard over him and would much rather have gone after the girl himself rather than be subject to the sidelines until it was imperative that he do something to help. He didn't pay attention to that last part right away, at least not since he had been watching the little spar between Hikari and the half breed. Rather than directing Shen to grab that one as well he released Nero's shirt long enough to scurry over and snatch it up and then scoot right back into place behind Nero. The darts that he'd been collecting hadn't made contact with a body so he assumed they may still have some of the drug still in them. Even if they didn't it would probably still throw one of the hunters off if they managed to get pegged with their own dart. He slipped his hand around in front of Nero a little with the palm side up and waited for him to grab hold of the dart before lowering his hand. Nero hadn't had a weapon in his hand, at least not until now and he figured Nero'd be better with a dart than he would. Not to mention the idea of getting close enough to someone to stab them with that wasn't very appealing to him.

Kyran startled very slightly once the halfbreed starting moving. He hadn't quite expected her to be that fast since she was only a halfbreed. He was almost positive that he was still faster than her but still, that surprised him a great deal. At least with this he was getting an idea of what the girl was capable of which may have been bad for her all things considered. His eyes turned towards the area where the dart had come from when it was again thrown at Hikari. He started to look back at Hikari but caught his gaze on Nobu momentarily. He was definitely getting the impression that Nobu was ready to stop some of the onslaught before it got worse. He nodded his head very weakly and then looked back to Hikari just in time to hear the response from her face getting clawed. He didn't bother standing there for too much longer. Of course he wanted to keep an eye on Hikari but this was a good chance to turn the odds in their favor and Nero was standing right there so it wasn't like he was leaving Hikari to deal with that girl all by herself. Knowing Hikari she could probably deal with the girl just fine on her own he just wished she could come out of this unscathed. He slipped into the trees just as fast as the halfbreed had moved, if not a little faster and immediately went in the direction of the person with the darts.

Nobu waited patiently for Kyran to take his leave before he readied himself as well. Since both Celestine and Kanone were already down Esen wasn't going to have to do too much to protect them and he didn't think any of the hunters would be stupid enough to reveal themselves anywhere near her. They'd probably lose their heads if they got too close to her, especially if any of them had darts on them. He looked over at her for only a moment. '...I'll be back.' He told her quietly and as calmly as he could muster before darting off into the trees himself. He didn't move quite as fast as Kyran but he was still speedy. He left the dart wielder to Kyran since he had a good idea that was who he was going after and started for the nearest human he could find. Humans had regular old senses and shouldn't be able to keep up with him or Kyran for that matter so he more than likely looked nothing more than a large purple blur darting around the trees looking for a target. He happened to come across a couple hunters fairly quickly and wasted little time at all lunging at one of them with his fangs drawn. He sank his teeth savagely into the mans leg and shook his head from side to side a little starting to knock the guy off balance. Before the guy could get a good strong yell out from the pain his fur started sparking and he sent a dangerous amount electricity thrashing at the man almost uncontrollably. The electricity had been a burst of anger from him which was why it was less controlled then he would have liked but thankfully the electricity easily managed to shoot over to the other man who was right near him. He waited until the man he was attached to went down completely and stopped moving and then started to release his leg. The guy still had a pulse but he was fried and would likely just bleed out the rest of his life. He shook his head a bit flinging blood from his mouth trying to dislodge the taste a little. He had bitten the man with no care whatsoever about the taste of blood and because of that and the severity of his bite his muzzle was practically dripping with the red mess. He turned his attention to the other man, the one who had only gotten the excess electricity and growled ferociously while baring his blood stained fangs the whole time. The guy wasn't able to move as easily as he would have liked. The amount of electricity had made him a bit slow from the shock to his body and Nobu managed to get a firm hold of him just as he had the other man before anything could be done. He knocked this guy flat on the ground and pinned his leg to the ground while yanking his mouthful of leg upward and making a nasty tear in the guys leg. He wasted little time releasing his leg and then biting him again this time clamping down on the space between the neck and shoulder. Being as quick as he was had it's advantages because he was able to move from one position to another easily. He sank his teeth into the skin and clamped down on the bones themselves with so much force that he could likely have broken them. Instead he pulled and jerked without removing his teeth and then another bit of electricity erupted from his fur until the guy stopped moving and stopped trying to get him to let go. He waited until he was sure the guy wouldn't try to get up and then let him go, pulling his head back and letting the blood slip out from his mouth while the electricity from his fur fizzled out.

Kyran went straight for the hunter who had been trying to hit Hikari with the darts. If the darts were gone then finding and attacking the other hunters would be a little easier. He found the hunter easily enough since he had some idea of where he was going, not to mention his speed cut the searching down substantially. He was surprised to see a human girl had been manning the darts. He was behind her a little bit and started to sheath one of his blades while keeping the other out and ahead of him ready to cut her down if need be. He didn't care for attacking girls, even if they were human. He would if he had to, but he'd rather not. He half wondered if this girl could be used as leverage against the halfbreed hunter. Surely that halfbreed would have some idea of comradely and not let this woman lose her life when given the choice. He was sure the human girl had noticed that he had left the main group and she would likely have her eyes peeled but he was faster and used that to his advantage to close the distance between them and force her against a tree with his blade drawn to her neck. He was furious with her for trying to take Hikari out and he actually found it a little difficult to not just lop her head off right now while he had the chance but he was struggling with that since she was a girl. Besides, if they had her then perhaps she could be used as a bargaining chip against the halfbreed and whatever hunters were still out there if Nobu hadn't gone and cleared them out. The girl was squirming under his hold and muttering profanities. He ignored her for the most part and simply applied a little more pressure to his blade so that it actually sliced her neck a little. "I could kill you now." He muttered under his breath as he uncurled his tail. He kept his blade against her neck and moved his other hand to knock away her weapons before moving his tail to wrap tightly around her middle, binding her arms at her sides firmly. He started to pull the blade back a little and dropped his empty hand down on her shoulder tightly. "Don't fight me and I won't have to kill you where you stand." He told her rather coldly before pulling her away from the tree and starting to head back towards the rest of the group. He kept the blade raised and close so it wouldn't take much at all to cease her functions. He kept a decent pace rather than a speedy one since he had the hunter girl in front of him. It wouldn't take him too long to get back to the others so long as the girl didn't put up a fight and none of her comrades found she'd been captured.

Esen looked up when the halfbreed moved forward and was just about to snap at her when she dove up over her head. She actually did jump at her ankles, but missed due to her speed. She turned halfway around, still snarling angrily at the halfbreed savagely, though she didn't move away from Kanone and Celestine. She didn't even look back to Nobu when she heard him announce that he would be back, but she did respond with a short, "Okay," as she continued to growl. She could smell out the humans as well and actually would have loved to help Nobu with whatever it was that he was doing if she could get away from these two long enough. She wasn't so sure she would be of too much help. After all, she wasn't as fast as Nobu and certainly wasn't as big. Her only real skill was her ability to fly and vaporize herself, which wouldn't do her any good other than to keep from getting hit.

Nanashi continued to sit there, staring wide-eyed at what was happening, though he kept his one hand on LaRae's face. He didn't know what he could do, he wasn't much of a fighter. He noticed when Kyran disappeared and nearly panicked. He knew that Kyran could fight well, but he didn't like having any of them out of his sight. He wanted to help, but he didn't want to hurt anyone, it just wasn't in him. It struck him to try to get someone with the darts, but he noticed that they all seemed to have vanished except for the ones that had hit Celestine, Kanone, and LaRae. After a moment he finally stood up. He couldn't just sit there, he had to help somehow. Unfortunately, no sooner had he stood up then he felt a sharp pain in his side that caused him to topple sidways and lose his grip entirely on his spetum, which hit the ground a few feet from him. He tried to let out a yelp of pain, but the blow actually knocked the wind out of him and all he managed was a tiny squeak. Apparently there were more of them than it seemed and they had noticed a weaker spot in the group. With the halfbreed in their group he was sure they knew that half breeds couldn't use magic, and his expression probably gave away that he was no fighter. His only protection was unconscious behind him, and he was her only protection, pathetic as he was. He had no idea what had hit him, but he tried to scramble up quickly though his side ached so badly it hurt to move. He had barely gotten to his knees when he felt another hard blow to the side of his head that actually flipped him over so that he was staring up into the face of a very callous looking man with long brown hair tired back and cold brown eyes. His face was tan and he looked rather disgusted as he looked down at him. He held a strange looking chain weapon that seemed to have a metal ball at one end and a sickle at the other. His vision blurred a little as he tried to concentrate through the throbbing pain in his head. He groaned and closed his eyes for a moment, listening hard, but he couldn't see well enough at the moment to bother with trying to make his eyes work.

The man that had hit Nanashi stood over him, sickle in hand now as he looked down at the dazed creature. "This is just a halfbreed," he said irritably as if agitated that he had wasted his time. "Check the other one."
A second man with shaggy blond hair knelt by the earth dragon and rolled her over, looking at her head. "It's a girl, too old to keep," he said simply, "And missing it's horns."
"Go ahead and kill it then while we've got the chance," he responded quickly and quietly. He seemed pretty sure that the other dragons were a little preoccupied with the more obvious threat of the thunder halfbreed, and one had disappeared entirely, so he was half trying to keep a look out for that one. Go figure it was the thunder dragon. He had noticed that it had gone into the woods on the opposite side from where they were located, the same side that their hidden dart thrower was hiding on. Considering the lack of darts flying he had a feeling she was dealing with the thunder dragon, though he did hope that she managed to peg him before he got to her.

Nanashi was probably only half conscious after the blow to the head, but the words, 'kill it,' had gotten to him. He didn't even check to see if they were attempting to kill him, his eyes snapped open as soon as he heard the sound of a blade being drawn from a sheath. He had no idea how he managed to get up so fast, but he was on his feet in a flash. The man with the sickle sliced at him, but he didn't feel anything other than the sting in his side where he'd already been hit with that ball. He thought he'd missed, he didn't notice the blood on the man's weapon. He just dove straight at the one that had the blade raised over LaRae's chest and tackled him, letting out an almost shrill "NO!" as he collided with him so hard that both of them went flying off into the trees. Of course, he landed on top of the man and felt another sharp pain run through his side. He also heard a sickening crack as they hit the ground. Only after a moment did he look up and realize what it was. He stared in wide-eyed horror at the man he's just tackled, who just so happened to have the misfortune of slamming head first right into one of those jagged crystal structures. Blood was pouring from the gaping wound in his head, and he could see it running down the yellow crystal, turning it red rather quickly. He scrambled off of the man quickly, his breath hitching as he gasped. He didn't even think about the man behind him, he couldn't tear his eyes away from the man in front of him.

Kyiri had finally decided to jump down from the tree now that Nobu had run off and she made her was over to Celestine, her fur standing completely on end. She had to dive out of the way of the halfbreed when Hikari flung her back, but then she happened to notice Nanashi falling to the ground. Durring the brief exchange between the hunters she'd already hissed and started running in that direction. She knew she was no match for the two of them like this, but she had to do something. She didn't think that Nanashi could do much right now, though she was relieved to see him dive up and tackle the one man away from LaRae. That was one down, now she just had to watch his back. She pounce at the back of the man that had originally struck him, and in mid air transformed, quickly being surrounded by blue-gray mists as her body elongated and enlarged. She let out a roar as she erupted from the mists, her one tiny, 'mew' now more like the shriek of a mountain lion. Her massive paws landed square in the back on the man with the sickle and she stood on him and then on his arm so that his weapon was useless. Overall, she was even bigger than Shen, now probably just a little larger than a grown tiger; anyone in the group could have easily ridden her back. She still looked pretty much the same, other than she her head seemed bigger, hear ears taking up less of it than in her smaller form, and her paws were much larger than in her kitten form. Her teeth were longer and the two in front hung down just a little longer than the others, making them near impossible to hide when she closed her mouth, through she was grouched on the man's back at the moment growling and roared at him again when he tried to throw her off, which was a futile effort on his part. She let her claws did into the man's back, not really trying to retract them, though she easily could. Her claws were long enough that she could easily tear this man to ribbons, but she only pinned him for now. She'd let the others figure out what to do with him.

The halfbreed choked on her breath when the light dragon slammed her knee into her abdomen and then again when she slammed her hand into her throat. She fell backwards, but just barely managed to throw her self forward enough to land on her feet in a crouch and slide backwards. She glared at the light dragon for a moment, watching the blood ooze from the gashes on her face. She already noticed two advantages. One, the light dragon was losing a lot of blood and a good portion of it was running into her eye. The other, was that she was still unarmed, so as long as she could keep her from getting inside her blades, she should be alright. Her gut hurt and she was still trying to catch her breath, but she forced herself back up and charged the light dragon again, this time not getting as close to her before slashing out at her horizontally. She wasn't too surprised when that attack missed so he almost immediately followed it by slashing down with her other blade.

Hikari could only really see out of her right eye at the moment since one of the gashes on her face had been on her forehead just above her eye and was bleeding profusely into it. he had to keep that eye closed, it was pretty much useless for the stinging and the red tinge that the blood gave everything. She was still being as vigilant as was possible in her current state. As soon as the dragon half moved her eye tried to focus in on her blades, and she saw the one coming at her horizontally.Quickly, she ducked down and anticipated a second strike, so she grabbed her bow and shoved it up above her head with both hands, just in time to keep the machete from biting into her shoulder. The two pieces of metal clanked together, making a few sparks before the blade slid off of the bow. After a moment she shoved upward and then swung her bow to the side, smacking the girls' hand with the edge to try and smack one of her weapons across the clearing. She did manage to get one away from her, but it only fell a few feet away, and still left her with the one, which she quickly realized was flying right at her neck. She bent backwards quickly, narrowing avoiding the blade as she braced her hands on the ground, still clutching her bow and flipped over backwards, catching the dragon half right in the chin with the toe of her boot hard enough to knock her an inch or two into the air before striking her again with the second as she flipped the rest of the way over and landed on her feet again a couple of feet back from where she had been standing before, putting her nearly right beside Nero, but still a few inches ahead of him.

Nobu waited with the two men that he had taken down until they had clearly stopped moving, or well, at least until he knew it was impossible for them to get up. While he had waited he looked for thick patch of grass to rub his muzzle against since he knew it was stained with blood. Honestly, he'd taken a little more out of the two men then he needed to and because of that he had received quite the bit of blood for it. He was glad the men were no longer a threat but he was already hating that he was going to be plagued by this nasty taste for a good long while. He didn't get his muzzle cleaned very well and it would be pretty noticeable at least until he managed to get it washed off properly. He didn't bother lingering around the bodies once he was sure they were dead and started back towards the group rather than go looking for more hunters. He felt better checking on things with the group before going off again if need be. He hurried back to the group quickly but not quite as fast as he had left. He broke out of the trees in time to see Kyiri go after a hunter. He couldn't help but pause where he was after seeing Kyiri get... a lot... larger then she had been originally. He just stared over at her as she took the man down and pinned him. If he hadn't been a unique animal himself he probably would have gawked at witnessing that. He took a moment to glance around at the others since Kyiri seemed to have the one man taken care of. He went ahead and wandered over in that direction first, mostly to see if LaRae and Nanashi were alright. That had been the area where he had last seen those two. He paused near Kyiri and stared for a moment before looking down at the hunter and growled with a hint of anger at the man before passing him and over to LaRae for a moment. She was out cold and so long as the man was pinned she was alright. He continued to find Nanashi and paused beside him and saw another hunter though that one looked to be taken care of already. He turned his head towards Nanashi a little and just kind of tilted his head a little wanting to ask if he was alright but of course he refrained from actually asking.

Nero kept his attention to the fight between Hikari and the halfbreed even after Reyes had given him one of the darts that never made contact. He was sure it wouldn't be too hard to use but he wasn't going to be fast enough to keep up with that halfbreed. Unfortunately his fighting style was more strength then speed so his attacks and timing was a bit slower than the average person. He made sure to keep Reyes behind him at all times and watched the fight as closely as he could while not getting distracted. That was nearly impossible once he caught sight of the other hunters that had come out into the area and near Nanashi no less. Of course, one of their weakest links and the one who'd likely give her life to protect him even now was unconscious. He wasn't going to be of much help to him at the moment being where he was and keeping an eye on Reyes and Hikari. He was a bit relieved to see that Nanashi actually managed to do something though he wasn't too sure what had brought it on and then Kyiri too had gone over to help. At first he really didn't see how Kyiri could help but that got turned around really fast when he caught sight of her changing forms. He tried not to stare over at the mass of cat that was pinning the hunter in place of the small annoying kitten he was used to but that was really difficult. His attention thankfully was snagged again by the fight with the halfbreed and he focused on that more intently since the other hunters seemed to be taken care of for now. He was getting the impression that this fight between Hikari and the halfbreed could be drug on and on if something wasn't done soon and given the way Hikari was bleeding it would be better to be done with it sooner rather than later and definitely in their favor. Once Hikari wound up nearer to him, mere inches from him, he turned his hand slightly to hide what he had in his grasp and reached forward slightly so that she could easily take what he had if she chose to. "Use this." He uttered quietly. Hikari was faster than he was and if she used the dart and could manage to jam it into the girls skin then maybe the sedative, if it was still in the dart, would work on the girl just as it had the three in their group.

Kyran continued walking the human girl back towards the rest of the group and for the most part she didn't seem to be putting up too much of a fight, or at least she wasn't doing anything more than struggling with the binding of his tail. Part way back to the group the girl finally started to fight him more and forced herself to trip which caused him to loosen the grip of his tail so she could fall. He drew his blade back slightly and was about to reach down to grab her and pull her to her feet but started to jerk his hand back almost immediately. The girl had managed within the small time of her hitting the ground after his tail had released her to reach for a dart in a small pack she was wearing that he hadn't thought to take away from her. She had turned slightly once he had reached to grab her and thrust the dart for his arm. She managed to just stick him and as he jerked his arm back the dart tore down his arm leaving a slice in his arm. The dart hadn't managed to get too deep into his skin so he didn't worry too much about it at the moment. He turned his blade to her and quickly sliced the pack right off her waist without too much care to being careful of her actual skin. In the process of doing away with the pack with the darts he had manged to put a nasty little gash in her side. He reached down with his bladeless arm once again and grabbed the girl by the collar before yanking her up to her feet. He was fairly certain she was completely disarmed now since all she had to her person was her shirt, pants and boots. If she managed another attack at him he might seriously think of just outright killing her and not putting up with the crap. He moved her so that he had her arms held tightly behind her and held his blade the opposite direction from his elbow so that he could hold it to the front of her neck and just yank back if he needed to. He continued walking her this way, trying to ignore the slight burning sensation in his arm from where the dart had scathed him. Once he reached the area where the rest of the group was he shoved the girl out of the tree line and continued to hold the blade to her throat. He was fairly certain if the halfbreed wasn't already dead she would get the gist of everything since the human was still alive though, judging on how things played out further he wasn't too objective to just jerking his blade back. As much as he didn't like having to fight or kill girls he wouldn't hesitate to kill this one depending on how the halfbreed reacted.

Esen's attention had been caught when she heard Nanashi hit the ground, and she growled savagely at the hunters, though she couldn't quite bring herself to move away from Celestine and Kanone. She almost panicked when she say Kyiri running toward those hunters, knowing full well that she was no match for them at all and Celestine was fond of that little kitten. She actually perked up and stopped growling when the little think changed forms and just stared at her as she took down the other hunter. She looked over to Nobu briefly when he came buy and remained where she was, still half in shock that the little kitten could get so...big. She half wondered what else the thing could do, but right now was hardly the time to focus on that. She looked at the sickle in the man's hand where Kyiri stood on his arm while he was cursing and struggling to throw the massive cat off of him, and noticed that it was coated in blood around the tip. That worried her, especially wince Nanashi hadn't emerged from the trees yet, and she couldn't really see him from where she stood.

Nanashi hadn't moved since he had gotten off of the man, other than to hold his hands out toward him as if ready to help him, but unsure of what could be done. He knew there was nothing he could do, there was too much damage. One of the crystals and plunged right through the man's temple and he could see that he was no longer breathing or moving; he was already dead. A violent shudder ran through his body as he stared, unable to look away from the man's face and watched the blood pour down over the crystal. He no longer even seemed aware of the fight around them or anything else. All he could focus on was the face of the man he's just killed. His hands finally fell to his sides but he didn't look away. Already he could feel himself shaking violently and his breathing would come to him in nothing more than short gasps. His face had drained of color leaving him looking almost pale and definitely sick. His head throbbed painfully with each pound of his heart and his side ached terribly, though he was only vaguely aware of any of that, and completely oblivious to the face that he was bleeding rather heavily from a new gash in his side. The man with the sickle had sliced him rather deeply when he lunged at the other man, deeply enough that it could be serious if left uncared for. Unfortunately, Nanashi was completely unaware that he was bleeding all over and the blood was hard to spot against his black shirt and pants and his coat covered most of the tear in his shirt. Incredibly, his coat had come away unscathed by the blade since it had flown out behind him as he dove forward. He barely reacted at first when Nobu came near him, and it took him a lot longer than it should have to notice him. Honestly, he was just going into shock and probably well over halfway there. Once he did notice Nobu he turned his head slowly and stared at him for a moment before flinching back a little with a quiet whimper. His expression hadn't changed, his eyes were locked in open horror at what he had been looking at and the expression never left his face when he looked at Nobu...if anything it might have gotten a little worse. He'd never really had too much to do with Nobu since large animals made him nervous, and Nobu was both large and now covered in blood. he didn't particularly want that near him.

Hikari had to take a second after she had kicked the dragon half away from them to wipe her eye with her arm, which only served to turn a good portion of her arm red. She glanced back to Nero when he offered her something and then glanced down, rather surprised to see that he'd just handed her one of the darts that had been thrown at her. She took it and held it rather tightly in her hand as she looked back to the dragon half again to see that she was getting up. She was just about to dive at her and try to stab her with the dart when Kyran came out of the trees with another girl, a human one. That stopped her for a moment, though she still held the dart at ready to attack with, though she kept it out of sight at the moment.

The halfbreed felt her teeth snap together on her own tongue when the light dragon kicked her in the jaw and then felt herself flipping back at the second connect. She didn't really have time to stop herself from hitting the ground and this time landed flat on her back with her remaining machete clutched tightly in her hand. She was quick about getting up, though she seemed almost dazed. She glowered at the light dragon again and like her, was just about to pounce back into an attack when she heard someone yell her name.

"Fleta!" the girl shouted as soon as the thunder dragon had forced her through the trees where she could see the halfbreed still fighting with the light dragon. Why hadn't she killed that one already? Honestly, it shouldn't have been that hard. She stared at Fleta with the same, disgusted appearance that she gave every other dragon here. Clearly, they weren't on really good terms, but she seemed to expect some kind of reaction out of the girl.

Fleta's ear twitched lightly at the sound of her name and she already knew who it was without looking. Rather hand jump forward she dove back and grabbed up her other blade before spinning on her heel to look at the thunder dragon, keeping both he and the light dragon in her sights since all of the others were unarmed or unconscious. She looked from the brown haired girl who was almost a clone of the man laying under the massive cat and then to the thunder dragon, whom she gave a look of absolute disdain. It looked as if she would have loved nothing more than to kill him above all of the others. She didn't move to make any attacks, but she didn't move to save her either. "...What?" she asked in a flat, cold voice.
The man beneath Kyiri seemed to have panicked at the sight of the other girl because he began struggling rather violently under her paws, trying to throw her off even more. "Sara!" He struggled again, but was still unable to throw the cat off. "Damn it, you fucking halfbreed, do something!!" he snapped at her.
Fleta glowered but didn't look behind her. "You must not want her saved too badly, Derik," she growled as she looked at the girl who was still glaring at her.
"If you let her die I will kill you myself!" he snapped back at her.
Fleta growled and actually rolled her eyes as if she heard that threat about five times daily and finally just sheathed her blades again. "Fine," she said shortly, "...Kill them both." she said indifferently. They had both gotten themselves captured, and she wasn't going to be their scape goat.
"YOU!" he roared, "If you go back without us they'll kill you like they should have done years ago, you worthless bitch!"
Fleta still didn't even look back at him, but she didn't seem phased by his comment one way or another. She just looked at the thunder dragon evenly as if daring him to move, and even smirked a little. "Go on, kill an unarmed human girl, you can pretend it's me when I was too small to defend myself," she said darkly, her voice thick with loathing. She was obviously well aware of what the fate of halfbreeds from the thunder clan was, though she didn't know by whose hands it occurred, it really didn't matter. They were all the same to her, any one of them would turn her into the proper authorities.

Nobu continued to stand near Nanashi merely staring over at him. It was all too obvious that Nanashi wasn't quite in his right mind, or at least not after having killed that human. Had he been anyone else in the group he probably would have already started trying to talk Nanashi into feeling better and telling him that he did what he did because he had to in order to save someone. He laid his ears back slightly when Nanashi finally looked at him. He hadn't spent much time around Nanashi but he still felt he should have checked on him, though, looking at him now maybe it would have been better to stay away. The thought slipped away relatively quickly once he heard the commotion and he started to turn to look back towards where the noise came from. Judging by the bellowing from the man under Kyiri, Kyran must have been back with a hunter girl in tow. He turned his attention back to Nanashi and happened to notice now that the kid was bleeding. He hadn't smelt it before mostly because he was coated in blood himself but he was noticing it now. Even if Nanashi hadn't wanted him near him he had to point it out on the off chance that he hadn't yet noticed it for himself. He inched his head a little closer to Nanashi and started to nose towards his side where he'd caught whiff of the fresh blood. For the sake of not looking like he was going to hurt him he even whined a little to try and draw some attention towards the wound.

Nero let his hand go back to his side after Hikari had taken the dart he offered to her. He would have offered more but that was the only one that Reyes had given to him and he wasn't quite sure how Reyes could get the others without it being utterly obvious that the kid was reaching into his shadow for these things. He cast his glance towards Kyran when he noticed that he had come back and with a human girl with him. He was wondering what he'd brought the girl back for but it didn't take very long to catch onto the idea that maybe she was meant to be used to stop any further fighting. That was something he may have tried if put in Kyran's position though... he wasn't sure he could've just let the girl live once he found her. He was a little curious how Kyran could stand to not kill the girl where she stood but then he was starting to get the sneaking suspicion that Kyran may have had a soft spot for women in general regardless of their race. He shook his head lightly and listened to the exchange between the human girl, this halfbreed, Fleta and the human man. Somehow he wasn't that surprised to hear Fleta say to kill them both and then to continue by telling him to kill an unarmed human girl. In Kyran's position, regardless of whether or not this halfbreed was pushing him to just kill the girl he would've killed her in an instant but he definitely had a feeling Kyran was going to have trouble with that.

Kyran continued to keep his blade drawn right in front of the human girl, Sara's neck and his other hand was clamped down as tight as he could get it to bind her hands together. Unfortunately he was just barely noticing that his arm was starting to feel numb and he would eventually lose all strength in his left arm which in turn would completely loosen his grip on the girls hands. He was a bit relieved that he didn't have to start any type of discussion on the matter, his forcing the girl out and her speaking up had been more than enough to get things rolling. He was a bit disappointed however as things progressed. This idea of his wasn't working out quite as he would have liked. The only person left of this group that showed any real concern for this girls well being was the idiot stuck under... well.. what was that? Was that Kyiri!? He just kind of stared over at the massive cat for a moment before his eyes trailed back to what he was currently trying to deal with. His hand was steadily losing strength and at a slightly faster speed than he would have liked. At least the numb feeling didn't appear to be spreading anywhere further than his left shoulder. He assumed since she hadn't properly stuck him with that dart that the sedative hadn't gotten into his system enough to cause real harm. This... Fleta character... she was a problem. She didn't appear to have a strong alliance with these humans and she certainly didn't have one with the dragons since she had become a hunter and that made this situation quite the problem. He had a human girl hostage that he really didn't want to kill. He honestly didn't think he had it in him to kill her though he wanted to. He wanted to be mean and angry and kill her in return for attacking them and for targeting Hikari but as much as he wanted that he wasn't sure he could actually kill a defenseless human girl. He managed to keep a relatively straight face even after Fleta had rattled on about killing both the humans and again when she started to tell him to kill an unarmed human girl though he was a little caught off guard by the rest of her statement. How could he pretend it was her? He stared over at her for a moment and then shook his head very slightly. "I wouldn't pretend that this defenseless human was you, I'd rather kill the real thing." He commented coldly. "Though, right now I'd kill you for being a hunter not for being a halfbreed and I could care less about when you were too small to defend yourself." He added and tightened his grip on his blade that was held to the girls neck. He had noticed his hand had now lost all it's feeling so the girl would regain use of her arms which was why he made sure he had a really good grip on his blade.

Nanashi swallowed hard as he looked at Nobu, though when he appeared to be turning away, and his gaze, like a magnet, turned back to the dead body lying next to him. He couldn't seem to look anywhere else for long. It was just hard not to stare at all of the blood...and the man's slack face and still half open eyes that almsot seemed to be staring at him accusingly. He shuddered again at that thought and felt his breath catch. He didn't know what to do now. He actually didn't want to leave the man now that he'd done this to him. He clutched at the grass with his fists and clenched his jaw tightly, feeling a familiar metallic taste gathering in the back of his face. He felt his stomach rolling and knotting, and he felt like he may be ill. He flinched a little when he heard Nobu whine and glanced down slowly, noticing him...close to his side. He uneasily edged away and raised one hand slowly, placing it on his head. His hand was shaking so badly that he would probably be causing Nobu's head to shake if he wasn't forcing himself to hold still, and he gently tried to push Nobu's head back a little. "...G....get....get....away...." he whispered, his voice barely even audible. His voice was trembling almost as badly as he was, and it cracked as he tried to get the words out. After he spoke he shuddered again violently and then shut his eyes tightly and pulled his arm back quickly, wrapping both of his arms tightly around his chest as he tucked his head down as if trying to burrow his chin into his chest while he hugged himself and shook. Moments later he let out a dry sob and grabbed the sides of his head, beginning to rock back and forth a little too quickly to be comforting to himself. "I'm sorry....I'm sorry..." he whimpered as if the man could actually hear him, not that his apology meant anything, "I'm so sorry..." Some small part of him knew that this was pointless. It no longer mattered what his intention had been at the start, he had killed a man that probably had a family somewhere waiting for him to come home.

Hikari stared at Kyran for a moment and then looked at Fleta in near disbelief when she told Kyran to kill both of the humans. However, hearing the what that the humans spoke to her, she almost couldn't blame her. She doubted that she'd take to death threats too well, either, but even still telling the enemy to kill your comrades was harsh. She still didn't move, just kept her good eye on the girl and the dart held tightly in her hands. She was trying to make sure that Fleta didn't make and sudden moves, but unfortunately the blood loss was starting to make her light headed. She shifted positions, trying to plant her feet more firmly on the ground before shaking her head a little, trying to clear it, though that only caused her to stagger a little bit. She wished the halfbreed would hurry up and go or...something. She was tempted to throw the dart at her, but at the moment she wasn't even sure she could aim well enough to hit her. Her adrenalin was dying down, the pain was starting to make itself more noticeable. She was going to have to try and heal her own face and hope that Taro's concoction would work on her while she put the energy into it or she was going to pass out before the day was over since she doubted anyone had a needle and thread handy to stitch her up with.

Fleta scoffed at the thunder dragon when he said that he would rather kill the real thing. "Of course you would," she spat back bitterly. She eyed Sara for a moment and then looked back to Kyran when he said that he would rather kill her for being a hunter than a halfbreed and didn't care about when she was too young to defend herself. "Ha!" she gave a humorless, unconvinced laugh, "You want to kill a hunter? You're holding one of those, nothing's stopping you. I don't care. Her brother might," she said as she nodded back to the man that was struggling under the massive cat and screaming profanities. "I guess you were unlucky...your people didn't get to kill me when I was still ignorant and these people just decided I'd be useful. For obvious reasons, I don't give a rat's ass if you all kill each other. I just sided with the race that wouldn't kill me faster than look at me." She gave Kyran another dark, hateful look before finally looking back toward Derik for a moment since he had given up on screaming at her and started yelling at the thunder dragon, demanding he let his sister go and kill 'the worthless halfbreed'. She actually glowered at him and then looked back to the thunder dragon again. "Do something, I'm tired of standing here talking," she said darkly before she started to slide her blades from her holster's again.

Kyiri was getting really tired of listening to Derik scream and curse. After a moment she roared again, that angry mountain lion roar and then stepped off of his arm and onto his head as if telling him to shut up.

Nobu's ears laid back a little once again when Nanashi responded to him by edging away and lifting a hand to push his head back. He took a short step back and lifted his head since Nanashi had wanted space though he had hoped it had been because he noticed he had been hurt, not because he was focused on the hunter who he had killed. He watched in sheer amazement as Nanashi practically broke down and flipped out at what had happened to this hunter and started apologizing while rocking back and forth. That was officially the most pathetic thing he had ever seen from anyone with an ounce of dragon in them. Regardless of the fact that he didn't want to share with everyone that he could talk he felt the need to slap some sense into Nanashi verbally and that required the use of his voice. He may regret it later but Nanashi needed to pay attention to himself and the things going on around him rather than a dead man. 'Would you stop getting so upset over someone who was going to kill you and for heavens sake stop apologizing about it!' He practically growled with annoyance. 'The hunter is dead, you protected everyone and would you now start paying attention to the fact that you are bleeding heavily ?!' After he finished speaking he gave a huff through his nose and then turned back towards where Kyiri was. He padded over in that direction, pausing only briefly near LaRae to double check and make sure that she was still breathing before stepping over towards Kyiri. He eyed the man under her once she had stepped on his face and couldn't help the urge to want to laugh at that. His attention shifted though as he padded a little away from Kyiri and more so out towards the others. He was a little surprised to see that everyone was actually standing and not fighting tooth and nail at the moment.

Nero eyed Hikari carefully taking note that she was starting to become a little less steady on her feet. This needed to end quickly and standing around letting the two thunder clan members, halfbreed or not, talk wasn't doing anything for them and he didn't want to be picking Hikari up off the ground all because Kyran didn't have it in him to kill the human and he'd rather run off at the mouth. He continued to stand there without moving at least until the halfbreed had told Kyran to do something. He had a gut feeling Kyran wasn't going to know how to respond. He reached behind him and pushed Reyes back a little with one hand and then reached down into his pocket with the other to remove the one spiked brass knuckle he had that actually was in one piece and slipped it onto his hand. He stepped away from Reyes and Hikari and inched towards Kyran. Judging by the halfbreed he doubted she'd put herself out to stop him from nearing the human girl and Kyran so he wasn't really worried and even if she did come near him it would be her loss once she got close enough for him to hit her. He went straight over to Kyran and stood in front of him, in front of the human. He stared at Kyran, not even bothered to have his back to the halfbreed and lifted his fist. He drew his hand back and rammed it into the human girls abdomen so hard that he may have punctured something important since she immediately responded by coughing up blood. After he withdrew his hand he reached out as the girl slumped forward, obviously the blow was enough to put her out for a bit as well. He wouldn't say for sure the blow was enough to kill her but she wouldn't be getting up to attack them any time soon. He took hold of the girl by her shirt and then stepped to the other side of Kyran so that he could toss the girl onto the ground and free up his hands. He had noticed while standing near Kyran that there was something wrong with his left arm and that was unfortunate, but at least this way the human was out of the picture and Kyran didn't have to do anything. After dropping the girl he just stood where he was to keep an eye on the halfbreed.

Kyran could only half understand this girls anger towards their clan. He knew most halfbreed of their clan were deemed abominations and cast out by death but the humans weren't that much better, at least in his eyes. The humans would still kill her just as the thunder clan most likely would. At least within the thunder clan you could have a chance to earn your right to exist with the full dragons though the existence wouldn't be quite as lavish as an average full dragons. He also knew that halfbreeds of the thunder clan weren't supposed to be murdered by just anyone, the job had to be assigned to someone. So at the very least the halfbreeds of the thunder clan got slightly better treatment than the ones from other clans. He did want to kill her because she was a hunter, because she had made a job of hunting other dragons, half of what she was but that didn't mean he would. He also wanted to kill her because she had obviously landed a few hits on Hikari and caused her to bleed but this halfbreed was still a woman and he didn't really want to kill one unless he had to. He was finally starting to think of a response to the things that Fleta had said when he caught sight of Nero moving into his line of vision. He just stared at him for a moment before leaning slightly to the side to keep an eye on Fleta. So long as he could see her, even a little, he'd be able to move and react to her. It would be wise for her not to try and attack Nero while his back was to her, but he didn't think she was an idiot; she wouldn't just charge him like that. He startled very slightly when Nero punched the girl because she wound up pressed to him from the blow. He started to flip his blade and then lower his arm a little once the girl had slumped down and Nero had taken hold of her. He was quietly thinking 'Thank you, Nero.' to himself. He felt like such a wimp, not being able to bring himself to kill one defenseless human girl whereas Nero could hurt her so easily. Once Nero had moved out of his way he stared over at Fleta. "I don't know what you've been told but no one in our clan has any right to kill you until it has been decided that you're death is whats best and only then will someone be assigned to kill you." He told her. "Unfortunately that doesn't stop normal townsfolk from thinking they have the power to punish halfbreed's themselves." He added. "I'm not even certain that our clan officials know of your existence. I think if they had, you'd already be dead." He paused. "I highly doubt they would see someone with your attitude as fit for society." He said rather coldly. He didn't really have very much against halfbreeds, especially after meeting Nanashi but this one really turned everything around. Halfbreeds with attitudes like hers and the fact that she had become a hunter really made him dislike halfbreeds like her.

Nobu continued to watch rather intently to the exchanges, at least until it looked like the the halfbreed may be well enough distracted by the conversation or what had been going on. Just about the time that Nero had stepped aside and Kyran started on her with more conversation he picked up his feet and started in her direction as quickly and as lightly as he possibly could. He was fast and if only for a brief moment or two he could push himself to be as fast as Kyran so closing the gap between the halfbreed and himself wasn't that hard. The very second that he reached her he already had his fangs drawn and without warning clamped down as hard as he possibly could on her human arm without any intention of letting go. Just as he had with the hunter he had first bitten his first instinct after biting down on her arm was to start jerking his head to one side and then the other. He wasn't sure he would do much damage other than leave a nasty bite mark on her arm but he was hoping that someone else would take advantage of this opportunity to attack her or something.

Nanashi couldn't really help freaking out the way that he had. He may have been part dragon, but that didn't really change anything. He was half human as well, though he didn't seem to think like either one. He didn't believe in killing, he didn't believe that anyone deserved to die. Unfortunately for him, his mind seemed to be developing at two different levels as well. He understood things well and learned quickly as well as could easily be considered an adult, but at the same time there were other areas that he didn't really know how to deal with and at times, he really did just every back to acting like a child. Unfortunately, this was one of those times. This scene, for some reason, struck him with an almost overpowering sense of jeva-vu, though as far as he could remember he'd never been anywhere near anything that had just been killed that even remotely resembled a human or dragon except for Varun...and Sonia, but he hadn't seen Sonia and he'd been too out of it to really even register when Varun was killed. It was just too difficult for him to function properly while staring in the face of a man he's just killed with his own hands, however accidentally. Now may have been the worst possible time for him to freak out about it, but he didn't know what to do. Nanashi nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard the voice in his head and he immediately looked around almost frantically, but he didn't see anyone that the voice could be coming from. At the moment, the thought didn't even hit him that he had a dog talking to him. He cringed at the words and moved his hands from the side of his head to cover his ears, but the voice didn't go away. He couldn't deal with this right now. This wasn't the first time that he'd heard voices with no apparent source, with his eye he had heard voices all of his life that usually belonged to something dead. "Be quiet!" he pleaded weakly, his voice tiny, "Leave me alone, please, leave me alone!" One thing that the 'ghost' said did get to him. He was bleeding? He thought it must have been confused, but after Nobu moved away and the voice was silent he slowly lowered his hand to his aching side and sure enough, he felt blood pouring over his hand. He pulled his hand back for a moment and just stared, almost disbelieving at the blood. How and when did that happen? He continued to stare at his hand for a moment and then placed it back over his side firmly. At least the shock of seeing the blood seemed to have kicked him out of his senseless apologizing streak, but he still didn't know what to do. He couldn't fight like this...he didn't think he could ever even look at a weapon again. He couldn't be like the others and do what he had to do for his own good, he didn't think his life was any more valuable than any other. Apparently, though, he thought that LaRae's life was worth it, but even still he couldn't forgive himself for this, not for killing someone. He did finally move, only to shift over to a tree and lean himself back against it while drawing up his knees and pressing on his aching side as firmly as he could. He moved only to where he could see around the tree and just see LaRae. He was surprised to see a massive...cat on the hunter who had attacked him, but extremely relieved to see that LaRae appeared to be unharmed. At least no one had touched her. He had been sure at first that when he tackled the one hunter the other would rush to help his comrade and likely kill him before getting around to LaRae since she wasn't moving and he'd hoped someone else could help her since he probably wouldn't have been able to. He only now realized he'd been kind of surprised that he hadn't been attacked while trying to get off of the dead hunter. Perhaps that was what put him at ease enough to allow him to freak out the way that he had. He was still freaked out, and he just stared straight ahead, not really seeming to be focused on any one thing. He was still in shock, the injury that he had wasn't helping him at all, and he couldn't bring himself to get up or even really try. Even now he couldn't help looking back over to the body of the hunter again.

Hikari was trying to concentrate on what was going on between Kyran, Fleta, and Sara, but she was finding it a little hard to concentrate. She actually hoped that Kyran wouldn't cave and kill the human, even if she was a hunter. She'd rather have her punished some other way then have Kyran make himself little better than they were. She actually felt a little bad for the human male, knowing that was his sister's life on the line and he couldn't do anything about it. Even if they were humans and hunters, Hikari had a big heart and she could feel sorry for almost anything. She almost felt bad for Fleta even, but that girl's attitude toward life just...irked her. She saw no reason in her actions, or...well she saw the reason, but she didn't agree with it. Once Nero had started past her she focused on him for a few moments, almost surprised to see the brass knuckle on his hand. She watched him as he walked up and punched the girl in the abdomen with it, actually sucking in her breath in a gasp as she cringed. She felt her ears lay back as she watched the girl double over and spit up blood and part of her had the strong urge to run over there and heal her, but she knew that would likely be pointless. She didn't want to kill her, but she knew that the girl would likely get up and try to kill them again and she needed to save her energy to make sure that everyone else was alright.

Fleta glanced back when she heard the massive cat roar and almost smirked when she saw her put her foot in Derik's face. Well, that was one way to shut him up. She looked back just as the dark dragon came up to the thunder dragon and watched as he punched Sara out. She barely even winced, just turned her head slightly to the side and watched emotionlessly as he threw the annoying girl to the ground unceremoniously. She then turned her attention back to the thunder dragon once he started to speak again, listening quietly, though his words only seemed to anger her. She narrowed her eyes. "Punish!? For what, breathing air!?" she snapped back at him, "As if I give a damn what your officials think! Do you think they're any better than me!? You think they have more of a right to choose than I do!?" She could hear Derik throwing a fit behind her, but she didn't bother to look to see what he was doing. She was just about to open her mouth again, she'd never really spoken to another thunder dragon, she usually just killed them as fast as he could, well aware they would likely turn her in. At this point in life, she was really beyond caring if they found out about her or not, she was getting tired of being used by these humans and being treated like dirt by the dragons. Before she could get any words out, however, she felt the large canine clamp down on her arm and she let out a pained and surprised yelp. She glowered at the mutt when he shook her arm and clawed her talons on her left hand before slamming her razor sharp claws into his back near his shoulders and wretched her arm up, gashing him deeply with all three nails from the back of his neck all the way up along to the top of his head where her talons slipped off, though for a moment she thought she might have caught her talon under the back of his skull, but if she had she didn't get a good grip or she probably could have about ripped his head off. She was strong, very strong, compared to Nanashi. Her physical strength practically could match most dragons, and maybe even surpass some in their weaker humanoid forms. She wasn't concerned with whether or not she killed the thing, she just wanted it off of her arm. Her movements were quick and precise, and after the first gash, she quickly repeated the motion three or four times with motions so quick that most of the ground would probably have trouble seeing her arm moving.

Derik practically howled out his sister's name when he saw the dark dragon punch her and the blood spew from her mouth. He finally snatched up his sickle now that his arm was free and swung the chain back until the blade sliced down the side for the massive cat and caused it to move, then he rolled onto his back and swung the ball end at the cat, cracking her right in the side of the head before he scrambled to his feet, nothing but pure rage in his eyes. He may have been the only human left alive, but he was glaring daggers at the dark dragon and already in the process of slinging the chain at the dragon, sickle end first, hoping to gash him open wherever he could.

Kyiri hadn't really thought about the man being able to use his weapon on her while she was standing on him, though she guessed after the fact that she should have left her paw on his arm rather than his head. She let out a pained scream when the blade bit into her leg and then again as hte ball connected with the side of her head and she fell over sideways./ She lay there for a moment before trying to push herself up again, shaking her head as she got back to all fours and roared at the man. She was angry at the man now for hitting her, and she didn't want him to hurt Nero. Without warning she dove after the man again, letting out another of those angry, wild-cat screams as she dove at his back again, hoping to tackle him while he was aiming for Nero. No sooner had the man gotten within arms' reach of Nero did she dive on his back again, forcing him to the ground as she dug all of her claws into his back and lowered her head to just above the back of his, growling angrily.

Nobu let out quite the angry muffled growl while he was latched onto the halfbreed's arm and continued to jerk. He wanted someone to do something and soon, especially since he knew the girl could still retaliate against him. He wasn't entirely paying attention to anything other than not letting go of the arm he had his teeth sunk into so he startled quite a bit when he felt her taloned hand dig into his back. He gave a muffled yelp at the pain but clamped his teeth even tighter through it while she pulled her talons up the back of his neck and to his head. The gashes she made hurt and of course he was bleeding but he wasn't letting go, not since no one had done anything yet. He tried to jerk his head again but stopped mid-action because of the pain and then bit down hard again when he felt her talons go another round. He held tight, tearing at her skin as best as he could without having to let go completely. He stuck to her arm until about the third or fourth rotation making muffled whimpers with every drag of her talons before he drug his fanged teeth across her arm, nipping at the skin as he finally pulled away enough that she could move her arm from him. He whined quietly for a few seconds before noticing, just barely that no one had done a thing to the girl but him. It was almost like they had all stood wide eyed at the scene before their eyes. He ached a great deal and he bled considerably considering the depth of these gashes the girl had managed. He probably should have dropped to the ground where he was and whimpered through the pain but he was so angry at the fact no one had done anything that he drew his fangs again and this time threw his teeth for her upper thigh, hoping to get another piece of her before he couldn't will himself to attack further.

Kyran was ready to respond to everything that Fleta had to say, whatever it took to distract her or something, or at least get her caught off guard enough that someone could attack her. He didn't really want to attack a girl, even her and as much as he would have liked to for obvious reasons if she were to die by his hands without the task being assigned to him he could get into quite a bit of trouble. That wouldn't really happen though unless someone found out he had killed a halfbreed without warrant but he wouldn't be able to continue doing his job without admitting to such a thing so he'd wind up getting himself into trouble. Not to mention if he banged her up bad enough she could go whine to officials of their clan and he could lose his position for it. But she'd have to make it that far into the territory without some other passerby just outright killing her or beating her up. At any rate... he couldn't really bring himself to attack her and he was really hoping that someone else would. He was quite surprised to see Nobu run up and latch onto her arm and start jerking. That really did surprise him so much that he just kind of stood there gawking. He knew Nobu could attack and he could hurt people but Nobu actually had the nerve to take on someone who could probably do a great deal of damage to him. He startled and even took a half step forward as soon as Fleta took her talon to Nobu. He felt his stomach knot over and over as she continued to dig her talon into him. He tightened his grip on his blade to the point that his knuckles and fingers were turning colors. He started to take another small step forward having almost talked himself into laying into her for hurting Nobu like that but Nobu finally released her and he paused, thinking she may leave him alone so long as he left her alone. Somehow... he wasn't that surprised to see Nobu go after her once again and all he had managed was to open his mouth to protest but there was no stopping Nobu, he was already lunged for her leg with blood stained teeth exposed.

Nero was quite surprised to see Nobu of all creatures going after Fleta. A canine was making a move when neither Hikari or Kyran had, that was kind of pathetic. He stayed where he was, just off set the girl he had thrown to the ground. He wasn't going to go after the halfbreed, not when either Kyran or Hikari stood a better chance of hurting her. He wasn't as fast as either of them and knew he'd just get himself banged up if he went after her but he would if he was all that was left. He'd go down fighting before he would let some stupid halfbreed like her win out over him like that. He wouldn't mind attacking her now if she was a bit sluggish but for that she would likely need to be hit with one of those darts. He'd seen what it did to Celestine and Kanone so surely she'd end up slow enough that he could land a few clean hits on her before she wound up out cold. That is... if the darts still had the sedative in them. He sighed softly, watching as the girl laid into Nobu's back. That poor canine was getting quite the lashing and he wasn't stupid enough to try and attack her right now even if he did feel bad for Nobu. That canine had taken off the same time that Kyran had and most likely sniffed out some of the hunters before coming back, he'd probably done good to protect everyone and now he was getting hell for trying to aid them again. His attention shifted before the scrummage between Fleta and Nobu was finished because he heard the fuss the other human was making. He just kind of stared at the guy noticing that he was on his feet and charging towards him, weapon in hand. Apparently Kyiri had been hit at some point if this mere human was free. He noticed the sickle flying towards him with just enough time to react. He turned to the slide slightly allowing the blade to scratch across his arm before Kyiri wound up clobbering him again. The sickle hadn't cut too deep but enough that a line across his arm turned red and then a little blood trickled down his arm. He turned head on towards the guy after Kyiri had him down and was growling at him. He stared at the human man and shook his head. He would never admit it out loud but he had some sympathy for a brother wanting to protect his sister. He had a sister after all and regardless of race the emotion was the same. He sighed heavily and turned back to the girl. He knelt down and grabbed a fist full of her hair to lift her head up to show the man. He signaled to Kyiri, hoping she'd get the picture that he wanted the man to be able to look. "She isn't dead, yet." He muttered. "See, she's still breathing." He added in a slightly less annoyed tone. "You keep at it like this an I will kill her, right in front of you while you're helpless to do anything to save her." He told him a cold tone. He smirked a little. "Then I'll let you live. Let you go home to your family without her and without a body to bury." He said darkly. "So behave." He said lastly and released the girl's hair to let her head rest against the ground once more.

Fleta honestly hated attacking the dog, but she didn't know how else to get it off of her arm. She growled, trying to hide the pain in her face when he kept biting down harder. "Damn it, you stupid mutt! Don't make me kill you!" she snapped, honestly sounding like she didn't want to have to kill the animal. It was humans and dragons that she really hated, she tended to have a softer spot toward animals than either of those species. Once the canine finally let go she pulled her arm back, which was now bleeding pretty heavily and missing a good bit of skin. She stared for half a second in disbelief when the canine lunged at her thigh this time, but this time she dove out of his way and whipped him, hard, with her tail, landing the near impenetrable scales right in the center of his back. "Down!" she snapped at him angrily. She could have drawn her machete and taken care of the thing to the point that it couldn't attack her anymore, but she'd clawed the poor thing up enough, she didn't want to put it in any more pain. She flowered at Kyran, assuming it must belong to him. "If you don't want me to kill it then call it off!" she snapped at him as she drew her machete with her good arm, the other was simply hanging uselessly at her side. Nobu had bitten down pretty hard, she could barely even move it now, or well...not without making it hurt like hell fire. She was taken a little by surprise at Derik when he came rushing at the dark dragon. ...Idiot. She watched as the massive cat pinned him down again and then turned her attention away quickly, back to the thunder dragon since she'd only now realized that he'd advanced. She finally backed up a bit, glowering at him as she tightened her grip on her machete. It was hard to hold in her left hand, but she still managed to have a decent grip on it, though she wished she could still use both of them.

Esen was taken a little by surprise as well when Nobu rushed the halfbreed, and she actually whined herself when she saw the damage the girl had done to poor Nobu's back and neck. "Nobu, enough!" she tried to tell him when he went to lunge at the girl again, but when she retaliated she finally growled savagely and lunged at the girl herself while she was looking the other way and talking to Kyran. She wasn't as fast as Nobu, but she could still close a smaller distance with relative easy and as soon as she got close enough she tried to watch onto the girl's leg, but accidentally got a mouth full of her boot since she aimed lower than she meant to. She snarled and bit down harder, shaking her head to try and knock the girl off balance. She wasn't even sure that she was puncturing the skin, but even still maybe she could at least hold her in place for a moment.

Hikari hadn't really expected Nobu to come barreling out and attack the dragon half, either. As soon as he had latched onto the girl she froze, staring half in shock as she started tearing at the poor thing's skin. She couldn't believe he was still holding on, and for some reason she couldn't seem to move either. Finally, she managed to find her limbs again once Nobu had let go and as soon as she noticed him going for the girl again she knew she had to do something before the girl could hurt him any more than he had. She was still light headed and her vision was getting a little blurry from the blood loss, not to mention she was only able to see out of one eye at the moment, she didn't know how good her aim was going to be, but by the time Esen had latched onto the girl's boot she had darted forward and threw the dart that Nero had given her at the girl with all her might. She did hit the girl, but not in the right place. The dart collided into of the girl's shoulder, right in the middle of one of her scales. The dart's tip snapped and the dart bounced off of her without even scathing her, and Hikari cursed audibly in her own language. She had been aiming lower, at her actual skin, but her aim was off just a little. Just enough to screw up the entire plan.

Fleta was thoroughly annoyed when the other canine latched onto her boot and tried to kick free but had to plant her feet more firmly. She was a little startled when she heard, and felt, the dart bounce off of her shoulder, practically metal against stone. She growled, aware of what they were trying to do now, and swung her talons at the green canine quickly, though she blinked when her arm just went right through the canine's body as if it wasn't even there, like she was swinging through air. At the same time, however, she felt the canine's teeth lose grip on her leg, and she took the opportunity to make this into an advantage. Rather than stand there looking dumbfounded she ran through the green canine at almost untraceable speeds and dove over the two wind dragons again, though this time she stopped dead and spun around, kneeling down and snatching up the golden horn that was poking up over the other dragon's shoulder jerking up the wind girl's head and holding her talons to her throat, pressing them against it already so that blood started to trickle from her throat. "Come near me again!" she challenged them, glowering at them all as she held up the girl's head with all the strength that she could muster in her human arm. It hurt to use it, but she didn't have much of a choice. She was sure they were all smart enough to realize the damage that she could do to this girl's tiny neck with her nearly three inch talons. She almost hated to hurt this one, she really did look completely helpless with her head handing lop-lopsidedly in her grasp, completely oblivious to the fact that her life was in danger. Still, this one seemed her best bet because she was so tiny and looked like she could use the protection, not to mention with the way the male was curled up around her clearly trying to protect her, she had a feeling that would probably tug at a few heartstrings.

Esen had been hoping someone would do something when she grabbed onto the girl, but she had mostly just wanted to distract her from attacking Nobu again. When she noticed her talons coming at her, she quickly vaporized, keeping most of her form, but when the girl slashed at her, her body seemed to fan out like someone waving their hand through smoke. She knew that the girl couldn't feel her teeth on her anymore, she couldn't touch anything when she was like this, but she didn't want the others to have to deal with two injured animals on top of everything else. Her body completely misted as she dove though the girl, intent on spinning around to grab her leg, and her body solidified as soon as she was on the other side, but it seemed at the same time she'd dove forward, the girl had just ran through her and when she turned about to snap at her leg her teeth closed on open air inches behind her. She growled and looked about to run after her when the sudden realization hit her that she had left Celestine and Kanone wide open. The girl seemed to have realized that as well considering that was right where she went. She growled savagely until the girl grabbed up Celestine's head and challenged them to get closer. She ceased her growling and her ears laid back again. How could she move away from them like that? That was just asking for something like this. She couldn't believe how helpless Celestine looked at the moment, well how helpless he was. He was dead asleep, his hair hanging in his face while he was pulled up in that awkward position, still half held down by Kanone's arm over his side. If that girl slit his throat open his blood was going to pour down all over Kanone. She whined loudly and laid down where she was, staring at the girl intently, while continuing to whine at her. She was afraid to go anywhere near her, the thought her safest bet was to just stand down.

Kyiri was still standing on the man's head growling at him and looking ready to tear through his back if he even so much as blinked again. She did get the message when Nero motioned to her and backed up a little since she had her paws on the man's shoulder, moving back to the she was sitting on his legs and had her massive paws in the center of his back.

Derik did look when the dark dragon moved and grabbed his sister, and he narrowed his eyes in pure hatred again. "Don't touch her!" he snarled at him, though his expression turned into one of shocked disbelief when the dragon said that if he didn't 'behave' he would kill Sara and let him leave here without her body. He stared at him for a long moment and then looked back to his sister and just caved, falling face first into the dirt while balling his hands into fists against the grass. Maybe if he was still enough this cat would get off of him.

Kyiri had no intention of letting the man up again, but the commotion behind her snagged her attention enough to make her turn her head around, though as soon as the halfbreed had grabbed onto Celestine and threatened to gash open his throat she let out another loud, panther-like scream, that almost sounded as if she was screaming "NOOO" at the top of her lungs.

Nanashi could easily hear the commotion of the others, though his mind was still in all of the wrong places. He still had trouble not staring at the dead man whose name he didn't even know, and he was having trouble concentrating too hard on anything through the pain in his head. He did look back out through the trees when he heard that huge cat scream so loudly, and that was when he noticed the other halfbreed holding Celestine by the horn. He felt his stomach plummet again, and he could see that her arm was pretty badly injured. He had a feeling that she wouldn't hesitate to kill Celestine if she had to, and that scared him. He didn't know what any of the others were going to do, but he really did like Celestine. He was scared, he couldn't deny that, the last time he tried to stop something like this...well, he had just killed a man trying to stop something like this.. He didn't know how he was going to do this, he didn't know if the girl would listen to him. He couldn't touch her...he just couldn't even attempt it, not to mention if he acted like he was going to hurt her she would probably kill Celestine on the spot. He finally forced himself to his feet, clutching his injured slide tightly with his hand as he used his other to steady himself against a tree while he tried to get balance.d His head swam, and he barely knew what he was doing as he moved forward, stumbling out of the brush. "Stop it!" he choked out as soon as he was in the open, "Please, stop it!" He didn't bother to look at the others, he didn't know if he could face them fight now. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew they were all probably thinking that he was downright pathetic. He couldn't fight for shit and he was freaking out in the shadows while they were out there trying to deal with this rough halfbreed. He was still shaking so badly that he could barely stand up, and his face hadn't regained it's color. He still looked in danger of...well either collapsing or freaking out and having another nervous breakdown, but he kept his wide, unblinking eyes on Fleta. His ruby eyes were filled with an almost a froze, child-like fear and pleading. He just wanted all of this to stop. He wanted her to go and he wanted the others to let the humans go and he wanted this to all be over. His ears fell back even more if that were possible as he stared at Fleta. "...Please...." he whispered again.

Nobu let out a pained yelp when the halfbreeds scale-covered tail connected with his back. He was already in pain to begin with and really didn't have the strength in him to keep standing after she had whipped him with her tail. His legs buckled under him and he was down on the ground with his back facing upward. He didn't get up, not because the woman had told him 'down' but because it was really hard to will his muscles to move after taking such gashes from her like he had. He didn't want to whine about it but he couldn't help the occasional whimper that passed by. He hadn't heard Esen when she had said 'enough' before. He was too focused on what he was doing to even pay any attention to that though he did notice, just barely, when she went after Fleta as well. He was surprised that she, gentle shy little Esen, was actually going after the halfbreed. He would have loved to have gotten up to help but no matter how much he would have liked to he just couldn't get himself moving.

Kyran kept as close an eye on Nobu as he possibly could and kind of hoped that he didn't connect with the girl again. He had been hurt more than enough already. He was a little relieved that the girl had moved in time but not so much once she whipped Nobu in the back like she had. He wanted to go over and check on Nobu but considering his proximity to the girl he wasn't about to get too close. He just stared at her when she told him that if he didn't want her to kill Nobu then he should call him off. He didn't even respond to that. Nobu didn't look like he was going to attack her again, honestly, the way he was laying there whimpering here and there he looked miserable. Not to mention he was bleeding quite a bit. He wasn't so sure Nobu could get up even he wanted to. He cared an awful lot for Nobu and the halfbreed would regret touching him again now that he wasn't doing anything to her. As long as she left Nobu alone he wasn't going to lose it and go after her. He was quite surprised to see Esen bite at Fleta as well and was a little relieved to catch Hikari throwing one of the darts at the halfbreed though that little bit of relief went right out the window when the dart didn't connect like it was supposed to and Fleta caught on. He wished that had worked, it would have helped tremendously. He startled rather badly once Fleta had moved and wound up with Celestine in quite the compromising position. He lowered his blade only slightly after she had challenged them to come closer to her again. Honestly he was wondering why she didn't just leave when she had the chance. There were still three dragons that were capable of fighting her even though Hikari most likely wasn't going to last long. Then there was still Aamori and Zale. This girl was outnumbered and out matched in strength and without her human hunters she was at a serious disadvantage. He stared over at her without budging even an inch. He didn't want to move and upset the girl enough to actually do more harm to Celestine who couldn't even defend himself right now. "You really should just take the chance and leave." He commented as he lowered his blade fully to his side. "You're outnumbered, outmatched in strength and you have no more allies in these hunters." He said calmly, hoping she'd just get the hint and leave. He was rather surprised to hear Nanashi of all people though his plea for her to stop wasn't unexpected. If she wouldn't listen to dragons than maybe she'd listen to another halfbreed.

Nero watched the man once he had put his face to the ground and then started to stand upright again. He just kind of smirked a little, glad to see the idiot was willing to listen. It really wouldn't take much to kill the girl off and do away with the body before the man could even get to her and frankly, you never want to mess with a dark dragon. He looked up to Kyiri when he heard her loud cry and then noticed the halfbreed had a hold of Celestine. He stared back over at Kyiri and then sighed quietly. "Just stay where you are Kyiri. Don't let that man up." He told her before looking back to the half breed. He caught her challenge to them and then shook his head a little as he listened to Kyran go on. "If she wants to kill a defenseless wind dragon and put that notch under her belt then I say let her." He said with a slight smirk. "She won't live very long once she's killed the kid anyway. I mean honestly... once the kid is gone there's nothing holding anyone back. Not me, not the other dragons, not the giant cat, not the dogs... we'd all come after you and most likely all at once. Try to avoid dying then." He said rather darkly. Obviously the idea of everyone ganging up on the halfbreed all at once amused him, especially since he knew Reyes had already started a small attachment to Celestine and he had a secret weapon that this halfbreed didn't know about.

Kyiri looked at Nero when he told her to stay there and not let the man up. She did as she was told, though with an audible whine. She turned around, practically trampling the man in her attempt to turn around facing Celestine again and let out another, quieter groan. She turned her attention back to Nero when he said what he had and then roared in agreement and trashed her tails to each side, as if she was ready to pounce, though her attention was rather quickly snagged by Nanashi as well.

Fleta had her eyes on the thunder and dark dragons as she held her talons against the wind girl's throat. She narrowed her eyes in obvious disbelief at Kyran when he said that she should take the chance and leave. Right, as if they wouldn't come after her. She was starting to feel very uneasy, and it probably showed. Mostly because she already knew everything that the dark dragon had said, but she'd half hoped the others hadn't realized it. Now that it had been said out loud the likelihood of it happening was even greater. Her attention shifted again when she heard another voice pleading with her to stop and she turned her head to see the other halfbreed standing there. He looked pitiful enough that she almost lowered her hand, but she kept it firmly where it was. "And what is stopping any one of you from coming after me if I leave?" she growled back, turning her attention mostly back to Kyran since he stood the greatest chance of catching her.

Nanashi shook his head again and stared at her with that same pleading look. "Because there's been enough already!" he said, voice voice raising a few pitches, "You attacked us, not the other way around! No one would have bothered you in the first place if you hadn't started this! Now there's at least one man dead, and that girl is dying, and for what!?" he demanded. "Please...let him go...he can't hurt you right now."

Fleta looked back to the halfbreed again and stared at him, her eyes not quite as cold as they were when she looked at the others. She looked a little torn between doing what he asked and staying where she was. She had a feeling the thunder dragon was just trying to get her away from the wind dragon. She clearly didn't trust any of the dragon's words, and only half seemed inclined to listen to the other halfbreed. "Why should you care!? You think any of them would be pleading for your life? I should think you'd be happy to be rid of them, one less you have to worry about."

"He's my friend!" he responded quickly.

"Then you're delusional," she snapped back sharply, "Dragons don't make friends with halfbreeds! They use them and then they kill them, end of story!"

Nanashi shook his head again. "...I may be...but even if that's the case, I would rather live in a delusion than the reality you create for yourself. If that is what you think, how is this making you any better than them?" He looked at Celestine and then slowly took a step forward. He was unarmed, he doubted that the girl would consider him much of a threat, though he watched her carefully. She didn't really seem to respond much to him getting closer so he continued forward in deliberately slow motions. He wasn't afraid of her hurting him, part of him seemed confident enough that she wouldn't.

Fleta stared at the other halfbreed with a look of almost shocked disbelief on her face before she glanced down to the dragon she was holding which...was apparently not a girl. She looked at him for a long moment and then glanced back to the halfbreed again when he started getting closer to her. She narrowed her eyes a little and drew up some, but she didn't make any move to harm the dragon she had captive at the moment. She was a little lost at the moment. How could he care so much about these things? They would probably kill him in a heartbeat given half a chance or reason, and here he was pleading for the life of this one, and trying to protect that other one. She stared at him until he was no more than an arm's length from her and then shifted slightly, pulling the dragon away as if she thought he was going to try and take him from her. That was all she was using him or really was a shield. His last statement was really what bothered her. She didn't care about the dragons or the humans and she'd never really thought about it, but she did act just like them. she acted just like the thing that repulsed her. Wonderful.

Nanashi watched Fleta as she pulled Celestine away and then slowly knelt down, cringing as he did so and tightening his grip on his side. He could feel the blood pour over his hand, but his coat still hid his hand from view at the time being since he wasn't moving fast enough to make it blow back. "...Please...don't drag this out any longer..." he said quietly, "Let him go...you haven't killed anyone... If you go now no one had a reason to go after you... So just go..." He inched closer to her and reached over to her slowly, placing his trembling hand on her arm just above the bites where Nobu had laid into her. "...Please..." He continued to stare into her eyes with the same pleading expression and slowly removed his hand from his side and reached over to her hand, without really thinking, placing his stained red fingers on her taloned hand and gently prying her fingers away from Celestine's neck. He was a little surprised that she didn't resist him, and actually let him remove her hand from Celestine. He didn't know how he was remaining so calm either, but at the moment he felt almost numb, probably from the shock that had sat in on him. He knew he had things to do and he couldn't go completely catatonic, but he could apparently go emotionally numb for a while.

Fleta continued to stare at the other halfbreed as he knelt down and noticed the way he cringed when he moved, though she assumed he must have been hit with Derik's ball and chain since he didn't appear to have been sliced open. She wasn't really expecting him to touch her and she actually flinched a little when he did so. She continued to stare at him intently as he spoke, listening but apparently debating on whether or not to obey. She cast another wary glance at the thunder dragon, which was who she seemed to be the most worried about, and then looked back to the halfbreed again. She didn't really know why she let him lower her hand, but she glanced down to the dragon again after a moment and her ears laid back a little. She didn't really know what to do, but he seemed so sure that no one was going to hurt her and sincerest in not wanting anyone else to be hurt that she couldn't help but believe him. She happened to catch a glance of his hand on hers after a moment and blinked when she saw how much blood was on it. Without thinking she reached over with her good hand and snatched at the side of his coat, tossing it back so that she could see his side. She looked a little surprised to see the hole in his shirt and the gaping gash in his side that was still oozing. She looked at his face and then just dropped the wind dragon's horn unceremoniously and stood up quickly before turning on her heel and darting off into the woods. It seemed a halfway decent time to make a break for it, and she had her own injuries to bandage up as well. If he was so sure those dragons cared about him, maybe one would help him out. She couldn't help but glance behind her to make sure that no one was coming after her, but the only one who even had a chance at catching her now was the thunder dragon.

Nanashi's eyes widened when she snatched for his coat, mostly since she moved so quickly and he wasn't expecting it at all. He jerked back, losing his balance as he did so, and fell on his butt right about the time that she stood up and ran off. He stared after her for a long moment and then sighed heavily and closed his eyes before bowling his head and wrapping his arm back around his side again, putting pressure back on the wound. He didn't bother trying to get up, she was gone...that was all that mattered to him.

Kyran wasn't that surprised to hear the things that Nero had said, if anyone could sound cold and ruthless it would be Nero. He did fullheartedly agree with Nero's statement. If Celestine would up dead that halfbreed wouldn't be living for too long afterward. He stuck to where he was without moving once Nanashi had gotten the girls attention. He just listened quietly. Right not he just wanted the girl and the hunters gone and frankly, he didn't care how it happened as long as it happened and if Nanashi could get through to this girl even just a little then that was practically a miracle. He stared over at her when she brought up the question of what was stopping anyone from coming after her if she left. He wasn't going to so long as she didn't harm anyone else. He went ahead and sheathed his blade slowly, at the very least a sign that he had no intention of fighting. Well, unless she took to a fight first. He kept silent while the two spoke to one another and then finally felt a brief wave of relief once it seemed Nanashi had gotten through to her. It was almost pleasant watching the girl leave and he didn't bother following her, instead his attention shifted towards Nanashi with a look of concern. He'd caught sight of what the halfbreed had looked at when she moved his coat away. Nanashi was hurt and more than any of the other dragons in the group. He was worried about Hikari and extremely worried about Nobu but catching some sight of the gash Nanashi had had alarmed him. He went straight over to Nanashi and knelt down, resting his right arm, the one he could still move to his leg as he looked over at Nanashi. "How did that happen?" He asked motioning with his head towards Nanashi's side. Asking if he was alright almost sounded silly. Of course he wasn't alright, he was bleeding and enough that it seemed to bother Fleta a little. He was a little surprised that with a wound like that he had been able to compose himself enough to get to Fleta to leave. He couldn't help smiling weakly at the thought. "You helped a lot." He commented quietly. "If you hadn't been here and spoken to her, I don't think Celestine would be alive right now." He told him quietly. He honestly felt that way. Celestine and Fleta would either both be dead or Fleta could've tired to leave here taking Celestine as her hostage and shield.

Nero watched intently while Nanashi spoke to the halfbreed. He kept his eyes glued to her, watching her movements as closely as possible which was his usual nature returning to him a little. His ears twitched slightly as the conversation continued and he honestly started to wish he was as fast as Kyran. He wouldn't hesitate to take that girl down if she turned her back on them and left. He wasn't entirely for letting someone who attacked them just walk away, at least not someone like her. She was stronger and faster than any human and she posed a bit more a threat if released then the two humans would. He scoffed quietly when the girl did finally make an exit and he stayed where he was. He would much rather have killed her but he wasn't going to be a match for her speed. He stood quietly for a few moments as Kyran headed over to Nanashi and then he lifted his hand to his head a little and rubbed his temple absently before he glanced over to Kyiri. He stared at her for a moment before moving over to her. "Go ahead and let the guy go, Kyiri." He said more in a lazy tone then his previous scary sounding one. He shifted his glance down to the man briefly. "Once she's off you, don't even try to fight back, I'll kill you." He paused. "Go get your sister and leave. Don't look back. Just leave." He told him sternly and then lifted his eyes up a little and looked at Kyiri again. What a huge change from the tiny annoying little furball. He couldn't help a very faint smile and a shake of his head.

Reyes kept to where Nero had left him at least until the girl was gone and it looked like things may settle down a bit. He had been extremely concerned that the halfbreed had targeted Celestine but there wasn't anything that he could've done to help out so he did like he was supposed to and stayed out of it. Now that she was gone though he slinked away from the tree he had been near and inched towards Hikari first, glancing up to her momentarily before scooting past her and over to where the halfbreed had let go of Celestine. He knelt down, his knees to the ground and reached for Celestine's head to move it gently, mostly so that he could check and make sure that the halfbreed hadn't done too much to his neck. There was a little blood there, he guessed from the way she had held his neck. It didn't appear that she'd managed anything bad. He smiled weakly and ran his hand gently over the blood to try and wipe it off of his neck. This whole thing really was kind of terrible and he couldn't help wondering if things like this always happened to them. If that were the case then maybe Kana had a right to be worried like she was.

Aamori hadn't been able to see much of what had gone on and she was partially thankful for that. She did finally get the chance to move once Zale had deemed it safe and pulled himself clear of the only way out of the hiding place Aamori had. She crawled out and slowly got to her feet, dusting herself off a little as she stood up straight and then finally had a glance around the area to see if she could piece together what she had missed. She noted LaRae first, laying seemingly unmoving on the ground by herself and that actually startled her a little because she hadn't seen what happened to her. Her first instinct was to head over there since she hadn't seen the rest of the group just yet. Zale followed her rather closely, just on the off chance it wasn't really safe. She knelt down as soon as she got to LaRae and took a closer look at her. There was a raise and fall to her chest but it wasn't quite as steady as it should have been if she were perfectly fine. It didn't take her too long to assess that she must have been hit with a dart as well. A sedative would be a good cause for her breathing being the way it was. She was relieved that LaRae wasn't really hurt and then stood again to look at the rest of the group, or at least work her eyes around. She noted that Nero looked alright though she wasn't too sure what to make of the... well... that looked like a cat... was that Kyiri? She shook her head a little and proceeded. Kyran looked okay, minus whatever was wrong with his left arm. It wasn't moving and it kind of looked like it was dislocated or something. But it wasn't, that was just the numbness having taken over enough that he couldn't even hold his shoulder up properly. Nanashi didn't look very well, but then again, when did he ever? Hikari... she... was a bit bloody. She wanted to focus on Hikari the most since she looked like she could stand to have a few days in a spa or something but her eyes fell on something that startled her quite a bit. Nobu. He wasn't just a mass of purple fur, he was bleeding a lot and he looked the worst out of anyone. That poor dog. She almost immediately looked down to Zale. "Will he be alright?" She asked quietly.

Zale had been worried about how Nobu looked but he kept close to Aamori rather than go over to look at him. He wanted to make sure that it was perfectly safe for her to be out on her own before he moved away from her. Just because that halfbreed left didn't mean anything. He looked up to Aamori a little when she finally spoke up and stared up at her for a moment. '...I haven't looked at how bad it really is...' He started. 'But he will heal, eventually. We don't heal like you dragons and we can't really be healed with your magic... we're made differently than most creatures so healing magic from dragons doesn't help like it should.' Or at least he didn't think it would help the way it would for a dragon. Nobu would heal on his own. They could heal faster than dragons as it was, it was just going to take a little time. 'He will need those gashes cleaned out though... or else they'll heal over like they are and they could wind up infected...' He added lastly before he started to trot away from Aamori and head towards Nobu. Aamori followed him, just at a slower pace. She was worried about Celestine and Kanone too, but they were just out cold. There wasn't a whole lot that she could do for them and Reyes had hold of Celestine at the moment anyway.

Nanashi didn't raise his head even when he heard Kyran come over beside him. He just kept that wide-eyed gaze on his knees, still hardly blinking. He did glance over to Kyran when he spoke and then slowly looked up to his face. He shook his head weakly in answer to his question. "...I...I...d-don't know..." he whispered quietly, "Th...there were...men and....one was....a-about to...I...I....just....p-pushed him away and....and.....and he....I.... I don't know..." he just shooked and looked away again, practically rolling up in a tiny ball on himself. He was starting to get some of his feeling back, but mostly just that sinking, rolling feeling in his gut. He shook his head weakly when Kyran said that if he hadn't been there he didn't think Celestine would be alive now. "...I...I just...wanted her to leave...." His voice cracked and he closed his eyes tightly as another violent shudder than through his body. He hadn't wanted to watch Celestine die and he hadn't wanted to see Fleta die or have everyone stand around while that human girl died. He couldn't watch anyone else die, he really didn't think he could stand to look at another dead body ever again. Finally he managed to ask the only other question that held any concern to him. "...I...is...LaRae...alright?" he asked quietly, without opening his eyes. He wasn't entirely sure he was ready for the answer to that. If she wasn't he didn't think he could stand it. Now only had he failed at protecting her, but that would mean he'd have killed someone only to have the same outcome.

Kyiri was watching Fleta like a hawk until she finally left, and then she relaxed a little. She looked over to Nero again when he told her to get off of the man and then shifted her weight off of the man. She growled quietly at the man and then looked back to Nero before looking over to Celestine. She hardly payed attention to the man and he got up and hurried over to his sister, though she heard him talking to her as he picked her up and made off with her. As soon as she was sure they were a little ways away she looked back to Nero again before shifting her glance to Celestine where the new girl was holding onto him. She tilted her head a little and then looked back to Nero before her body erupted into the blue-gray mist again. Before the mists had time to clear a tiny hand reached out and latched onto Nero's wrist before another one held onto the other side. As the mist cleared, a tiny girl, not more than six or seven, was standing where the massive cat had been moments before, though the same huge amber eyes were staring up at him, filled with worry. She had long blue-gray hair that easily matched the cat's fur and split in the middle of the back so that it fell in two sections all the way to her ankles. Her skin was a very pale as if it never say sunlight, and her lips were a light shade of pink. Her ears were still the same furry blue with tufts of darker blue near the ends, and at the moment they were laid back as her now singular bushy tail hung limply behind her, the darker blue tip dusting the ground with it's fur. She still had the pink ribbon with the bell on around her neck, as she had in her larger cat form as well, it just seemed to change right along with her. Her left arm had a nasty cut on the upper area just above her elbow, but right now that didn't seem to be phasing her. She tugged on Nero's arm gently and then looked over to Celestine and Kanone, "Nero...why didn't brother wake up?" she demanded before looking back up to him with that same worried expression, "He doesn't sleep like that!" She knew Celestine's sleeping habits, he was a light sleeper, and he would never sleep through anything this important or loud. She didn't understand why he wasn't waking up to defend himself before.

Hikari watched anxiously while Nanahsi tried to reason with Fleta. She took the time to put away her bow about the same time that Kyran had sheathed his blade. She was a little worried about Kyran's arm and couldn't help glancing at it occasionally. She also couldn't help the urge to want to go heal the human girl, but she was going to have to try to do something with her face first, she was losing way too much blood to function properly for too much longer. Unfortunately as soon as Fleta left, it wasn't but a few minutes before the humans were on their way as well, so she wasn't going to get the chance to heal the girl. She wasted little time after Reyes had gotten by her before she knelt down and was digging through her pack for the stuff that Kyran's uncle had given her. She didn't have a whole lot left, but she was going to have to try and use it, there was no one else who could do anything with her face at the moment and she was afraid she may not be able to help the others right now if she didn't do something about this before she started using a lot of energy. She took off the lid to the container and got a bit of the ointment on her fingertips before spreading it over the gashes on her face. She knew her bones had been scraped, but she wasn't concerned it that, it wasn't visible and it would heal on it's own later, she just needed to stop the bleeding. Once she'd covered the wounds she held her hand to her own face and closed her eyes before trying to concentrate her energy on the ointment. After a few moments she could feel it working and sighed in relief. She would have liked to have cleaned those out first, but she didn't have anything to do it with. If it left scars, she was pretty sure someone would sit on her and do something about it later whether she liked it or not, so it really didn't matter to her one way or another. Of course if she had noticed Nanashi's side she would have been over there on him before she even thought about her face, but she hadn't gotten a glimpse of what was wrong with him, she had been looking from Nobu to the human girl when his side was exposed. She knew he was shaking terribly and looked very pale, but she assumed that was just his nerves.

Celestine still wasn't aware of anything that was going on around him, he didn't respond at all to the girl picking him up or dropping his head back to the ground, nor did he respond to Reyes turning his head and touching his throat. Nothing changed about him, his eyes remained closed, his body limp and unmoving, and his breathing shallow and labored. The marks on his neck mostly consisted of four small holes in a line along his neck, and he didn't seem to even realize when Reyes had run his fingers over them. As of right now he was just dead to the world, it didn't seem like anything was going to wake him up anytime soon.

Esen was relieved when the halfbreed finally left and was on her feet again in an instant, She was sure that Celestine was alright, so rather than run to check on his little puncture wounds she turned around and hurried over to Nobu's side, whining softly as she lowered her head so that it was close to his. "...Oh Nobu..." She nuzzled his cheek gently with her head and then very lightly started to lick the wounds on the top of his head, doing the best she could to clean them out with what she had. She was sure someone would probably do a better job of it later, but right now she didn't really know what else she could do for him. She knew the poor thing was in pain and she wished that she knew some way to help, but unfortunately, she didn't have a way of doing it.

Kyran waited patiently for Nanashi to answer him, or even just respond. His ears perked only slightly when he started to answer his question and then sighed softly after hearing it. The response wasn't full of very much information and really didn't tell him anything but Nanashi couldn't tell him what he didn't know. "...Alright..." He responded quietly, mostly to let him know that he had heard him. He could only gather that there had been, what he guessed maybe two men. The one that Kyiri had gone after and another that apparently Nanashi had pushed. Judging by the way Nanashi was answering and the fact that no other man had come from the area near LaRae the other man must have been dead, or dying. He hadn't noted the weapon the other man had so he hadn't put that together as how Nanashi got his wound but it didn't really matter. Nanashi had a wound and it seriously needed to be looked at. He nodded his head a little when Nanashi said that he just wanted her to leave and sighed again quietly since Nanashi's voice had cracked. "Nanashi." He started. "I didn't see what happened with you over there, but if a hunter is dead try not to beat yourself up about it." He paused. "If you took one of the threats out, a threat against all of our lives then you helped protect everyone. You not only helped keep LaRae safe but all of us." He told him calmly. "You also managed what we couldn't. You talked that girl into leaving. You not only saved Celestine's life but you kept her alive as well." He paused. "Don't belittle what good you have done by the one threat that was taken out." He told him and reached over with his good arm to touch Nanashi's shoulder. "I don't think anything has happened to LaRae. Aamori just went over and checked on her and she didn't freak out or anything so I think she's fine." He said with a slight nod since he had briefly watched Aamori slip over in that direction. He started to pull his hand back and cast his glance towards Hikari. He noticed for a moment that she was, or had been working on her own injury. He was a little relieved at that but the wound Nanashi had was still a problem. "Hey, Hikari." He paused. "When you're done, Nanashi has quite the gash in his side and I'm not sure how long it's been bleeding." He was trying his best to make it sound important but certainly not urgent enough that she should drop everything she was doing to rush over here. If Hikari had taken to her own wounds first then obviously she had saw they needed to come first before checking everyone else out.

Nero, unlike Kyiri did watch when the man got up to go get his sister. He wanted to make sure that the man did as he was told and got his sister and left. He didn't think the man was much of a threat but even so the he'd still watch out for the group. Once the man was pretty much out of sight he started to turn his attention back to the group. He watched as Reyes headed over to Celestine and shook his head very slightly. There wasn't a doubt in his mind, Reyes would be spending as much time with Celestine as he possibly could. Though he kind of hoped it was more so because there was someone else like him and not because he'd grown fond of the wind dragon. He barely noted the colored mist beside him at least not until he felt something on his wrist and it distinctly felt like little fingers. He quirked a brow slightly and started to glance at the mist noticing that Kyiri in her big cat form had just been standing there. His eyes trailed down once the second set of little fingers had clamped onto his wrist. He just stared at the little pale fingers before focusing on what they were attached to once the mist had cleared. He just kind of stared down in complete awe of the amber eyes that were staring up at him. It was weird enough that Kyiri had been able to change from small pintsized annoying furball into the massive attack cat that he would almost regard as amazing but for that same large cat to change again and into a little girl was almost unfathomable. He stared down at what he was pretty sure was Kyiri. The eyes were the same, the color of her hair was the same, the ears and tail... it was all the same. He groaned quietly. He couldn't believe the cat could get more annoying. He had a soft spot for little kids and even though he knew Kyiri was a cat while she was in this form there was no way he was going to be able to treat her like a mere cat. She just looked too much like a little kid and honestly the way she hung at his arm like that reminded him of his sister and that wasn't helping matters at all. He hadn't been able to pry his eyes away from what he couldn't believe he was seeing but he did finally lift them. He was going to do another sweep of the area just to see if anyone else had noticed this kid but his eyes snapped back into place on her when he heard a voice come from her. Great. It talks. He shook his head with a heavily sigh and then started to register her question. Of course she would be worried about Celestine even over herself. He had noted the cut on her arm and the fact that she was naked but he had tried not to focus on it too much. He was trying to convince himself that it was just Kyiri and she was just a cat but when she opened her mouth and spoke that shattered completely and he was all the more aware that there was a kid on his arm, worried about Celestine. He sighed again, more quietly and wiggled his wrist free from her grasp before slipping his brass knuckle off and sliding it into his pocket. He then worked himself out of his shirt, trying to mind the blood on his arm so it wouldn't touch his shirt. He then started to kneel down in front of her. He held the shirt in one hand and then slipped his arms up a little. "Put your arms up, like this." He said calmly and waited for her to mimic what he had done with his arms. Once she had he opened his shirt up a little and slipped it down over her head and arms. He then pulled her arms down to her sides and turned her around gently by the shoulders before gathering the excess fabric of the shirt and knotted it behind her so that she wasn't quite swimming in it. "He's fine." He finally said and started to turn her back around. "You saw the little red thing that hit him right?" He paused. "Well, that had a bad thing in it that made him really tired." He told her quietly. This was honestly reminding him of how he talked to his sister. It was kind of eerie. "He's just sleeping the bad stuff off. He and Kanone will both wake up. Don't worry." He told her and actually smiled softly, trying to be reassuring. "After Hikari has a free minute." He paused and pointed to the cut on her arm. "We'll get her to help clean that boo-boo up." He paused. "It doesn't hurt much, does it?" He asked a bit curiously.

Reyes continued to stay where he was with a hold of Celestine. He had taken to making sure all of the little marks on his neck had been wiped clean. In return he just wiped the blood from his hand onto his black leggings while he worked. Once his neck appeared to be cleaned up pretty well he stopped and just let his hands rest while he stared down at Celestine. He had felt so bad that the halfbreed had gone after him and there wasn't anything he could do about it and Celestine himself hadn't even been aware of it. He sighed softly and then lifted his eyes slightly to look over at Kanone too. At least he hadn't had to be awake for that. He could only imagine the torture that would have been on Kanone. He hadn't know either of them for very long but he could sense the bond between them, especially with the way Kanone talked about Celestine. He was just really glad that no one in the group was seriously wounded to the point that they would die. Well, other than Nobu, maybe. He cast his glance back towards his shadow a little. "Shen..." He paused. "...Can that light dragon do anything for Nobu?" He asked since he'd seen her healing herself. Obviously she was able to heal others and he was curious. He frowned slightly at the response and then shifted his glance towards Hikari briefly. "Hikari, don't worry about Nobu, okay?" He paused. "Shen says that no matter how hard you try you wouldn't be able to heal those wounds." He shook his head a little, he just wanted to make sure she didn't waste her energy. He only assumed that Hikari would try to begin with. He had seen the way she tried to protect even him when the hunters first came so he assumed she was the type to do whatever she could for anyone regardless of who they were. That was a lot to assume but when you looked at it as a light dragon willingly trying to protect a dark dragon it really wasn't that unbelievable.

Aamori continued with Zale over to Nobu and she cringed slightly when she was close enough to see just how badly he had been attacked. She was going to ask how it happened but Zale had chimed in at just the right moment to tell her that the halfbreed girl had done it. She shook her head heavily and eyed the wounds with a bit of a sad expression as she started to drop down to her knees. She wasn't able to heal wounds but she could clean them out. Zale had said the wounds would heal on their own, they just may need to be cleaned. She looked over at Esen and smiled weakly at her attempts to help clean up. "...It's alright Esen, I'll clean him up. It's the least I can do..." She said quietly, almost in a whisper. Seeing the severity of the gashes up close had gotten to her and she felt terrible for not being able to do anything. She sat in a stupid root dome and practically clocked out all because she was afraid to deal with hunters again. She set her hands out in front of her just above Nobu and after a few brief moments the familiar blue aura engulfed her hands and then like usual her palms looked to be gloved by water. She hadn't ever cleaned something out on an animal like this so it may take her longer than she thought but she was willing to sit and work on it as long as she needed to. She started to lower her hands down, side by side, just above the first gash at his back. She was going to work her way up one side and then down the other. "Sorry." She said almost immediately when Nobu shifted under her. "The waters cold... I can't help it..." She added almost mutely and returned to working while Zale sat beside her watching quietly.

Nobu hadn't moved an inch from where he dropped after the halfbreed had hit him in the back with her scale covered tail. His ears twitched very slightly, the only response he could muster when Esen came closer and spoke before nuzzling his cheek. He was in quite a bit more pain now that he had lost all traces of his adrenaline and he had time to just sit. Everything ached but the gashes were the worst and the bleeding only made him feel lightheaded. He wasn't sure he'd ever lost blood like this before, it wasn't pleasant and certainly made him vow he was a vegetarian through and through. He couldn't see putting another animal through pain like this even for an instant, especially for his own hunger. '....I'm ...fine...' He paused. '...Just a scratch...' He responded quietly, tiredly to her words. He didn't shift when Aamori came closer, not even a movement registered in his tails. He barely even registered that Esen had been licking at his wounds until Aamori spoke up telling Esen that she could clean him up. He just laid there quietly in pain wishing he could heal even faster than he already did. This was going to take some time and it was almost agonizing knowing he had to be in this pain while he waited for the wounds to heal themselves. He finally moved a bit, his whole body gave a rather uncomfortable jerk when he felt the cold water in his wound. It startled him more than anything and after he registered what it was as Aamori apologized he tried to settle down again and just rest.

Nanashi was silent as he listened to Kyran's comforting words, though they only barely comforted him. Even if that were the case, he didn't think the hunter needed to die, and he certainly felt no better for hilling him. He did slowly raise his head again to look at Kyran, though is expression was almost blank. "...I...know that..." he whispered, almost inaudibly, "...But...Kyran....I...didn't mean to...kill him... He...he didn't need to die...I..." he broke off, his voice cracking yet again through all of it's wavering as his ruby eyes started to floor with tears, "I killed a human being, Kyran! I could have killed some child's father or...or... I just know he had someone waiting for him to come back...and now he never will....and it's my fault...." Of course Nanashi would be the one to think of something like that. All he ever really wanted was a real family, so of course it killed him to think that he could have taken that away from someone else no matter what the profession. His breath hitched and he closed his eyes tightly, forcing the dam that was holding the tears in his eyes to break, and as soon as the tears were sliding down his cheeks, his jaw clenched as he tried his best to hold back and his shoulders shook, but after a couple of seconds his entire face crumpled and he sobbed hard. He moved his clean hand to Kyran's chest and latched onto his shirt before pulling himself closer and trying to bury his face in his chest as he sobbed, a little more quietly now. He couldn't help it, he'd managed not to break into tears this long, and as much as he didn't want to break down in front of everyone, he couldn't help it. It wasn't that often when Nanashi cried. His eyes watered a lot, but it was usually more from physical pain than emotional, and he hadn't cried like this in ages. He didn't even seem concerned about the wound in his side and once Kyran had started talking to Hikari he was hardly listening. He just clung to his shirt for dear life as he tried to hide himself in his chest and muffle the sounds of his tears. His body was still shaking uncontrollably, as it had been all alone,but now that he'd actually started crying it only got worse. He would probably remind someone more of a child or a woman than a practically grown man with the way that he clung to Kyran while he cried, but he didn't want to just be brushed off and told he was a fool for feeling guilty. For some reason he felt like Kyran would probably understand, though he didn't know what made him think that. He didn't even care what anyone thought about his crying for their fallen enemy and his alleged family, he just couldn't get it off of his mind, and he was going to have to live with that man's blood on his hands for the rest of his life. No matter how much good he had done, he didn't know if it would ever outweigh what he had done, and for right now at least...it didn't matter to him.

Hikari was still working on her face for the moment when Kyran called to her. She stopped what she was doing, and looked at him for a moment, looking suddenly more concerned and a little chagrined at having not noticed Nanashi's wound. She blinked her good eye whens he noticed the way that he was carrying on, though she had a good idea that it wasn't due to his injury. He'd been hurt a lot worse than this before and not cried like that. She had already activated the ointment on her face, so she wasn't too worried about it now. She did wipe her blood-crusted eye as she stood up and tried to open it, though it would only open halfway since it stung so badly and the skin around it was a little swollen. She grabbed up the container and then started to walk briskly over toward Kyran, hardly paying a mind to anything else, really. She didn't really have the energy to focus on too many things at once right now. Half of her face, her shoulder, part of her hair, and a good potion f her shirt was completely red, and she was sure it was safe to way that she was in need of a good bath. She paused and looked at Reyes when she told her not to worry about Nobu, though her ears fell back at hearing that she wouldn't be able to do anything for him. She looked about to question the girl, and she had no idea who "Shen" was, but just nodded, reluctantly, before she knelt down on the other side of Nanashi and looked at him for a moment. "...Where?" she asked quietly, though it didn't take her long to find where he was holding. She gently brushed his coat aside and winced a little when she saw the blood all over his hand and all over the exposed skin of his side. She could see that his shirt and a good portion of his pants was very wet, so she had to assume that he had been bleeding for a while. She took his wrist and gently pulled down to remove his hand and then cringed again when she saw the deep gash, which seemed to almost spurt every time he sobbed now that his hand was no longer in the way. She quickly grabbed his shirt and gave it a sharp tug, untucking it so that she could pull it up out of her way. It seemed like the lower half of Nanashi's side and back had been dyed red, both above and below the gash, though the majority of it was below. She rather quickly dipped her fingers into the container again and spread what she could dig out of it over the wound, mostly because it was so deep she didn't know if she had the energy to attempt healing it completely alone, and Nanashi didn't need to lose any more blood than this, he didn't need to lose this much. Honestly, no wonder he was so pale, she was almost surprised that he was still conscious, though she didn't know how much longer that would last at the rate they were going. She held her hand over the wound once she had covered it and then closed her eyes again as the aura came over her hand and she started to heal the wound. She wanted to know why Nanashi was carrying around like this, but she'd have to ask later.

Kyiri blinked when Nero started to wiggle his hand free from her grasp and then started to take off his shirt. He just stared at him with an almost blank expression before tilting her head when he told her to hold her hands up like his. She did as she as asked and then made a face when he pulled the shirt down over her head and turned around when he pushed on her shoulders. She had no idea what the heck he was doing, or at lest why he was doing it, nor did she really care, she just wanted to know about Celestine. "Mewwww..." she whined while he was tying the shirt, and her ears laid back when she looked up at him, looking like she was ready to pout since he hadn't answered her question. Her tail thrashed to the sides irritably, and she gave him a look until he started talking to her, then her tail fell back behind her and she merely seemed to be listening intently. She nodded her head slightly when he asked if she'd seen the little red thing, and then made a face at it as she looked over to where Celestine had thrown it down. She looked back to Nero when he told her that they'd both wake up and not to worry. At least when he smiled she seemed to relax a little, though she still looked a bit worried. She glanced down to her arm when he had pointed out the cut there and then tilted her head a little. She nodded weakly and then looked back to him when he asked if it hurt much. "...It hurt when I walked on it..." she said quietly, "And it stings..." After a moment she raised her other hand to her head, rubbing the side of it just above her left ear. "he hit me in the head too," she said in a pouty voice, "That hurts more." She did have a good sized knot on the side of her head from where he had attacked her, but she wasn't bleeding from it, thankfully. She lowered her hand and then looked at Nero's arm and reached over to take a hold of it again, staring at the blood on his arm. "Awww you have one, too," she pointed out as she pulled his arm a little closer to her. She leaned her head closer to his injury, looking almost as if she was going to kiss it, but instead, she started to lick it. Apparently even as a little girl she didn't lose all of her cat-like instincts. Her tongue was still just as dry and rough as a cat's tongue as well, but that was how she knew to take care of these sorts of things.

Esen glanced up when Aamori came over and told her that she would take care of cleaning Nobu up. She had to tilt her head at Nobu when he said that it was just a scratch. She shook her head and then moved to lay down close beside him, pressing her side to his while Aamori cleaned him up. She nuzzled his cheek again gently and then licked his muzzle gently. "...You can stop being brave now, Nobu..." she said gently before she nuzzled him again. She really did feel horrible for Nobu. He looked so pitiful laying there like that, and she knew that Celestine was going to have a fit when he woke up and saw this. After all, she knew well enough that Celestine was more fond of Nobu than he was even of her, so of course he was going to be very upset. She really wished she'd been able to help Nobu earlier before he'd gotten hurt this badly. She whimpered again at the thought and then nuzzled him again. "...I'm sorry, Nobu..." She really felt like she'd messed up today. Not only had she let the hunter near Celestine, she'd also hesitated far too long to help Nobu before he was hurt this badly.

Kyran's attention was right back on Nanashi after he had spoken to Hikari. He listened to him quietly and sighed very softly when he got the part about the guy not needing to die. He kept a straight face when through the hysteria of having killed a human being and just listened as he continued on and on. He should have known that this was coming. Nanashi just didn't have it in him to be a fighter like the rest of them. Or well, most of them. He wasn't even bothered by the fact that Nanashi wound up clung to his shirt and sobbing. He wasn't about to tell Nanashi not to cry over this. He could understand why he was so upset. It wasn't exactly the same but he'd have felt terrible for killing that human girl if he had actually gone through with it. The feelings weren't exactly the same but he'd have felt roughly the same way as Nanashi. He lifted his good arm and slipped it around Nanashi trying to add some comfort at least. It didn't bother him that a practically grown man was crying against him. Nanashi was sensitive as he'd already know and he did have a right to cry if he wanted to. He just wished there was so way to make him understand that it was alright. It wasn't the end of the world just because a hunter died and honestly, if it were the other way around and the hunter had killed one of them, the hunter wouldn't be crying about it. He'd be selling the dead in pieces to the highest bidder. He stared down at Nanashi and sighed again quietly. "I can't change the way you feel, I really can't. But I wish you could understand things a little differently." He paused. "People who become hunters are bad people and they know what they're getting themselves into when they become hunters. They understand that there is a chance that they won't come home to their loved ones. Every hunter understands and accepts that as a possible outcome, as do their families. The families may be sad when their loved one doesn't come home but a part of them is always prepared for that. Death is inevitable in that profession." He said with a slightly heavier sigh. "...Hunters took Sonia from Celestine, Kanone and Marius as you remember." He paused. "Do you think those hunters had any care whatsoever about the family Sonia would be leaving behind? About how her remaining family would be affected? No. None of them cared. They left her a mess in the middle of a forest without a care in the world." He shook his head slightly. "Hunters also sell parts of us to the highest bidder, they try to capture younger dragons and they kill of course, without a single care." He averted his eyes slightly. "Nanashi, you're too nice to them. They wouldn't hesitate to kill you in a second and you're totally afraid of hurting them for the fear of killing them so who do you think would lose out...?" He wasn't quite sure where he was going anymore and he had practically ignored Hikari when she came up, mostly because he was trying to say something to Nanashi, he just wasn't sure what that was any more. "I don't think killing should come first and talking later... but when your faced with someone wanting to kill you and your friends... well... you can either take away the persons ability to fight by disarming them, or breaking their arms or legs if you had to... you don't have to kill them but if you don't do anything then you and your friends could die." He stared down at what Hikari was doing while she was working. "...You really did do a good thing Nanashi. Regardless of the fact that that one hunter is dead now... you did save everyone from a threat none of us knew about. Then you also managed to make that halfbreed leave." He reiterated to try and drill it into Nanashi and partially so Hikari might have some idea of what they were talking about. "...Thank you, for looking out for us Nanashi." He said lastly.

Nero hadn't really thought about it before but he was kind of glad that Kyiri seemed to have some intelligent thought in this form. He kind of wondered if it carried to the others. She did always seem to understand what they were talking about, or at least that he had noticed. He was glad she seemed to understand what he was saying and she did seem a little less worried about Celestine and Kanone. He lifted his arms and reached over just past her neck to lift her hair out from the shirt she was wearing now. He set his arms back once her hair was free and she started to answer his question about her arm. He nodded lightly when she said that it hurt when she walked on it and that it stung. "That doesn't sound too bad. We'll get it looked at." He responded quietly and then eyed her head a little when she went onto say that the man had hit her in the head as well. He could see the knot now that he was looking and absently reached over to very gently touch the area to make sure it wasn't bleeding or anything. Once he lowered his hand he shook his head a little. If it were bleeding he'd have seen the blood in her hair. He had noticed the pouty face she had made before she had said that her head hurt more. He smiled weakly. "Looks like it does. I'm not sure what Hikari has for that though..." He said quietly. He wasn't sure there was anything for a knot like that other than maybe ice. He stared down at her when she mentioned his boo-boo and then smiled again weakly. "It's nothing major. It doesn't even hurt." He told her with a strong smile though that faded slightly when she started licking it. He stared at her for only a moment before he reached over to took her shoulder only a little firmly. "No." He said with a quiet sternness and pulled her back so she couldn't continue licking. "You don't need to lick that. You look more like a child then a cat right now. You can't go around licking blood and wounds." He told her. He continued to look down at her and sighed softly before he started to stand up straight. He held his hand out to her and smiled a little. "C'mon. Let's get a little closer to everyone." The less distance Hikari had to move was probably better. She had looked a bit wobbly earlier, or at least she hadn't been perfectly steady before. "You can go check on Celestine and Kanone while we wait for Hikari to finish." He added lightly waiting for her to take his hand so he could walk over with her.

Nobu tried to keep himself quiet while Aamori worked at cleaning him up though he still managed a quiet whimper here and there. He was trying really hard not to make a noise at all. He had gone and gotten himself into this mess and he certainly didn't need to whine because of the consequences. He shifted his head slightly when he heard Esen say that he could stop being brave now. That was something that was kind of hard to turn off. It wasn't really in his nature, or Kyran's for that matter to crumble and fall apart and just give into the pain he was feeling or to even rely on someone else for strength. He was supposed to be the strength for others, not the other way around. Or at least that is how it sometimes seemed. He shifted again, a slight jerk when Aamori moved onto the next gash. The cold of that water... he wasn't going to get used to that then of course the air hitting the freshly cleaned wound. That didn't help any at all. His ears laid back slightly when he heard Esen apologize and he couldn't believe she was apologizing. She didn't have anything to apologize for. It took a bit of effort considering how tired his body felt but he did move, just enough that he could slip his head over to rest on Esen's paws instead of his own. He'd have slipped his head under hers if he had to. The motion made the gashes at the back of his head sting and he did his best not to hiss at that pain and then relaxed as the wave of pain subsided. '...You don't have to apologize.' He told her. '...and you don't have to worry, you know as well as any of our kind ...I'll heal and be perfectly fine in a day or two...'

Nanashi still couldn't seem to control his body, no matter how hard he tried to stop shaking and sobbing, it wasn't listening to what his mind was telling it. He was listening to Kyran's words, or at least was listening the best that he could at the moment. He could understand the first part of what was said at least. He could gather that the families had always expected it, but he still couldn't help feeling horrible for being the one who killed the man. After the second thing that he'd said he shook his head weakly, burrowing it into Kyran's chest a little. more. "...I don't...want to be....like them..." he said in a choked whisper through his sobs. If he didn't care, what made him any better than them? He couldn't justify himself by their lack of conscience, his was too big for that. He tried to burrow his head against Kyran a little more, though finally it seemed he was starting to calm down a little. At least he wasn't sobbing quite as hard and wasn't shaking as badly. One thing still ate at him though... He knew there was a double standard between dragons and humans, most dragons cared about humans about as much as humans cared about dragons. Nanashi just happened to care about both. He was grateful for Kyran's words of comfort, and the fact that he kept taking him for protecting them, but he did have to ask one more thing. "....If...if...he had been a dragon....would you still....say that?" he whispered quietly. There was no hint of accusation in his voice, merely a question that he didn't know the answer to, and quite honestly, the answer would probably make all of the difference in how he felt about this later. After all, how was it right for it to be 'okay' to kill a human hunter if it wasn't alright for the same fate to befall a dragon that was threatening their lives? He would feel just as guilty and horrible either way it went, but he wondered if the others would still think so highly of him if it hadn't been a human he had killed. He didn't raise his head from Kyran's chest when he asked, rather he nuzzled closer to him if that were possible, he barely had the energy left in him to even do that. His head ached terribly from the sobs and the knock it had taken and he was nearly exhausted from the blood loss. He still kept his grip on Kyran's shirt, but he did at least seem to be quieting down. All he needed to hear now was the answer to his question.

Hikari listened in silence to the two of them, or at least what part of the conversation she had gotten in one. She had come in just a little after Kyran was explaining about the hunters taking Sonia away. It didn't take her much to realize what had Nanashi so worked up, especially after the last things that Kyran had said. She opened her eyes again as the aura faded from her hand while the ointment continued to heal Nanashi's side. She stared at Nanashi for a moment after he had asked Kyran the all important question, and she knew almost instantly what the answer would mean to him. She had seen the way he reacted to hurting Kyran even after Kyran had sliced open his cheek and scared him half to death in that training match and she'd heard about the way he reacted to cutting Celestine's cheek. She couldn't imagine Nanashi ever not feeling horrible for killing someone, human, dragon, or otherwise. It just wasn't in his nature. Of course she understood what his question meant. He wondered if they cared as much about humans as they did about dragons. Would Kyran still be sitting there holding him and thanking him if it had been a dragon involved in that accident rather than a human. She knew it was an accident, she couldn't see Nanashi ever intentionally killing, it had to be an accident. She kept quiet for now, waiting for Kyran to answer him first since the question had been directed at him, but she already had her answer at ready.

Kyiri wasn't really preoccupied with whether or not the wound hurt, she jdut wanted to make it clean. She wanted to work on her own as well, but he was being nice and taking care of Nero's first. She blinked when he puled her back where she couldn't reach his arm and looked up at him with the tip of her tongue still stick between her little pink lips. She tilted her head, looking a little confused and let out a quiet, "Mew?" when he said that she couldn't lick it. She just blinked, looking confused as to whether or not her looking like a child should really mean anything. She didn't see why, but she withdrew her tongue and continued to look up at Nero when he offered her his hand. She looked at it for a moment and then reached up to take it before she moved closer to him. She actually wobbled on her legs when she tried to take a step and tightened her grip on Nero's hand. It had been a very long time since she'd tried to walk on two legs, she was half afraid that she was going to fall on her face. She did want to check on Celestine, so she was trying to get the hand of it again. It shouldn't take her too long, after all, she did know how to walk, she was just used to doing it on four legs. "Okay," she said quietly. She looked at the ground, trying to concentrate on putting her tiny bare feet in front of one another and move forward in a straight line. She had a tendency to lean to the side a little when he took a foot off of the ground which made her lean into Nero a little, but after a few steps she seemed to get the hang of it and was able to walk straight.

Esen watched as Nobu was cleaned up and then laid her own ears back when he moved his head over. She could tell the movement hurt him and she rather quickly raised her head from her own paws to allow him room so that it wasn't too difficult on him. She looked down at his head for a moment and then whined again softly. "...I know...but..." she whined again softly and then lowered her head and licked his head gently right up the center of his forehead, right between where his eyes should have been. That lick was more for comfort than anything, though she was sure it probably wasn't all that comforting. "...I just wish I had done something sooner..." After a moment she lowered her head down to his and let her head rest lightly on his so that her chin was just lightly resting across the bridge of his nose.

Kyran at the very least was a little relieved when it looked like Nanashi was finally starting to quiet down. He wasn't going to bother saying anything else to him, mostly for the fear of just repeating himself until he was blue in the face. When Nanashi was emotional like this one could really repeat himself and possibly still not get through to him like they wanted. He was slightly surprised by the question that he wound up asking. He guessed that shouldn't have surprised him though. He didn't really even have to think about an answer for very long because he already knew how he felt. "Yes, I'd still say the same thing." He answered. "A threat to us is still a threat regardless of the race it is." He paused. "Be it dragon, human, halfbreed, animals like Kyiri and the dogs, I'd still be thankful that we were protected against the threat." He said with a slight nod. He was quiet for a moment before he thought of something else to add. "There are bad dragons just as there are bad humans and I think so long as an innocent person isn't the one being killed there is nothing to beat yourself up over and unfortunately for them... hunters aren't very innocent."

Nero stared down at Kyiri once she had taken hold of his hand and then of course started forward. He couldn't help but keep an eye on her after he realized that she mustn't have the hang of walking on two legs just yet. Since he was watching her while they walked he wasn't about to let her fall and worse case, he could always just carry her. He felt a little better once she seemed to be doing better with the walking and guided her straight over to where Celestine, Kanone and Reyes were. Once he was close enough he slowed to a stop and then shifted his glance slightly over to Reyes then down to Celestine and finally Kanone. This really had been quite the little mess and at the moment he would love nothing more than to pick everyone up and move. It wasn't entirely safe to stay in the same area they were just attacked in... but with cases like Nobu and the three unconscious it was kind of hard to go anywhere. He started to release Kyiri's hand so that she could move where ever she pleased and then started to glance around at the others, like Kyran, Nanashi and Hikari and then the mutts and Aamori. He was actually finding it almost a little humorous that everyone seemed to just leave LaRae laying off a little ways all by herself. Well, if anything were to happen it wasn't like the girl was too far away to get to.

Reyes had just been sitting where he knelt, gently stroking Celestine's hair when Nero and the small girl came over. He tilted his head slightly, eying the little girl. She certainly wasn't a dragon and she wasn't human either. He hadn't been paying attention to when she appeared so he had no idea really who it was and he hadn't been around Kyiri enough to even draw that conclusion. He shifted his glance up to Nero with his head still tilted to the side. "...Who's that? Where did she come from?" He asked curiously. "She's cute... but why is she with you?" He added, trying to get all the questions out.

Nero's attention went right back to his cousin and he sighed upon hearing the questions. Of course not even he was paying attention. This would be so much easier if the others had seen. "...It's Kyiri." He paused. "That small kitten that can apparently change into a massive cat... and... this too, obviously." He said with a short sigh. "She's with me because I was I who she was next to when she changed... and she's here to see these two." He told him as he pointed down to Celestine and Kanone.

Reyes eyed the girl a little more intently and then it did start to look more clear. The girl and the cat did have the same ears and coloring and those amber eyes. He felt a little silly for not noticing himself. "...So the cat can be a little girl..." He mumbled quietly. That was awfully strange and he wondered if anyone else knew that this cat could change as many forms as she did.

Nobu nuzzled against Esen's paws very lightly, trying to avoid causing a wave of pain. 'It'll be alright.' He said again and then just tried to relax. This whole process was taking Aamori some time, he had noticed. It wasn't as quick and painless as he would have liked but at least the wounds were getting cleaned out really well. After all was said and done and the wounds were healed up good enough he was really going to need a bath. He couldn't even begin to imagine the state his fur was in. Before it had just been his muzzle and his teeth that were stained with blood but now a good portion of his back, without a doubt, was stained too. His fur was probably going to be matted and caked together by the time the blood was completely dry. That is if Aamori couldn't manage to clean the fur as well. He tried to keep himself still while Aamori shifted to another gash but that cold still startled him the first time it was set against the open wound. He turned his attention back to Esen. '...Any sooner and you'd probably have been hurt too...' He paused. 'I think one... is more than enough...'